The apostle Paul calls the believers in Corinth to be separate from unbelievers, and to be “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1). What does this mean? How are modern readers to apply these apostolic commands? The answer lies in the way Paul unfolds his complex but powerful argument. He asks the Corinthians five penetrating questions, gives an astonishing revelation and contrast, roots his thought in Scripture and covenant language, and then gives three commands and three promises to provoke God’s people to holy living! Building upon his argument and motivated by God’s great promises, Paul exhorted the Corinthians, as well as believers down throughout the ages, to be set apart from the contamination of sin and perfect holy living. The motivation for this pursuit is the fear of God. Join Jeff Pollard as he goes to Scripture to lay out the promises for those who fear God.

It is always a great blessing to be here with you. I'm thankful to the Lord for that privilege again. If you would please open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 6, 2 Corinthians chapter 6, we're going to read verses 14 through chapter 7 verse 1, 2 Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 14. Would you please stand with me as we read the Word of God? Let us give our hearts attention to God's blessed, inspired, and infallible Word.

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?

For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them and be he separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a father unto you and he shall be my sons and daughters sayeth the Lord Almighty having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Amen. Holy and righteous Father, we pray that thou wouldst be exalted in the preaching of thy word we thank thee for our dear brother who has warmed our hearts in the previous message and Lord I do pray that Thy blessed Spirit would now attend the preaching of this holy and blessed text in this hour.

Father, there are those here that do not know Thee, and I pray that if it would please Thee, draw them out of darkness into the glorious light of Christ. And Father, I pray for Thy dear blood-bought children. Fill their hearts with joy. Fill their hearts with awe and wonder. Fill their hearts, O God, with a love for thee.

And now, Lord, I pray that thou wouldst help me as I attempt to bring thy blessed word to thy precious sheep. Come, Holy Spirit, and do thy great work. In Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. Amen please be seated Jesus Christ the mediator of the New Covenant thoroughly saves his people from their sins.

Our Heavenly Father reveals in the gospel a full and free forgiveness for all our sins by grace alone, through faith alone, in his son, Jesus Christ alone. The Holy Spirit's miraculous work of regeneration, we also call that the new birth, being born again, brings us into union with Christ, making us spiritually alive. This results in repentance from sin, faith in the crucified and resurrected Christ, and everlasting life. Nevertheless, along with this great good news comes a stark reality. Even though God graciously gives us a new heart, a new spirit, new life, new desires, as new creations in the New Covenant Christians can still sin and make grievous errors.

This is abundantly clear when we read Paul's epistles to the church at Corinth. The inspired and infallible Word of God reveals that the Corinthian church had a long list of sinful problems. Too numerous to lay out in detail but I can at least set these before you. They included incest, believers taking each other to court, fornication with prostitutes, and drunken church members at the Lord's Supper. If these were not bad enough members of the congregation were falling back into the sin of sins, idolatry.

Both 1st and 2nd Corinthians revealed that Paul genuinely loved this congregation but he had a stormy relationship with them that surfaces here in this epistle. Some in the church questioned Paul's legitimacy as an apostle and were therefore following false teachers. So in verses 11 through 13, Paul opened wide his heart to the Corinthians in fatherly love and he called the Corinthians to respond by opening their hearts to him And what would the proof of that be? What would the proof of their repentance and open heart in Christian love to Paul be? Well the answer is biblical holiness and separation from the false teachers and their followers.

This is what Paul was after. This passage is complex. In fact, it is a complex argument in Paul's most difficult to read letter, and it will be very difficult to do it justice in just one session. The message was originally entitled, promises to those that fear God, and certainly that's included in the text, but it is properly, more correctly titled, Separation and Holiness in the Fear of God. And we will come at it from that perspective this morning.

So first let us consider this Paul commanded the Corinthians not to form close associations with unbelievers. It's in verse 14a. This portion of Paul's second letter to the Corinthians is quite a complex argument written to a church wracked with problems. In chapter 6 verses 14 and 17 and then in chapter 7 verse 1 Paul gives five commands about separation and holiness and this is the first command. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

So then, what does it mean to be unequally yoked? I think anyone that spent any time studying this would probably agree that there's hardly a real consensus about what this actually means. Everybody has a general feel for it but there are a lot of views regarding this entire verse and we want to spend a little bit of time here to begin with because it lays the foundation for the rest that will follow. So unequally yoked Paul most likely grounded this command in Deuteronomy 22 verse 10. Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.

Now we who live in modern Western industrialized societies often have trouble with imagery that arises from ancient, Eastern, agrarian societies. But Paul's audience would have recognized his simple image and his point. They would have gotten it. They knew that a yoke was a wooden crosspiece that fastened over the neck of two animals and attached to a plow. The animals would pull the plow as a team.

However, two different breeds of animals could not plow together in the same yoke. Why? Because their different build, different size, different stride, and their different strength would not work together. Their awkward movements would make plowing straight furrows impossible. So by this illustration, Paul was telling the Corinthians that the beliefs, worldviews, and lifestyles of believers and unbelievers cannot be spiritually yoked together.

Unequal yokes, that is, close association, alliances with unbelievers can easily compromise a believer's faith cannot accomplish the Lord's work and will bring them to spiritual ruin. Paul is not making a suggestion, He is giving a command and he desires to see repentance as an act of love to him and therefore to Christ from the Corinthians in this manner and it begins with not making alliances, not being yoked together spiritually with unbelievers. So remember the ox and the donkey, they cannot plow together. So we must now answer another question. Did Paul have unbelievers in general in mind or did he have specific unbelievers in his sight?

Now through the centuries God's people have held differing views about the unbelievers that Paul mentions here. View number one, some people believe that Paul meant non-Christians, anyone who does not repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. View number two, others believe that Paul meant idol worshipers. This is usually connected to Paul's lengthy discussion about Christians and idols in 1 Corinthians, chapters 8 through 10. Both views are possible, and both views have been held by the Lord's people by commentators, pastors, theologians, down through the ages.

And if this is the case, the meaning would be something like this. Paul would be referring to the false, Paul would be referring to, after having opened his heart to the Corinthians, he would want them to respond and show their sincerity by separating themselves from any unbelievers generally or from idol worshippers specifically. You've probably heard it preached that way. I know some of the pastors here have heard it preached that way and there's a truth in the way that that is taught. However, I don't think it makes the best sense of the text and it can both of those views can lead when when dragged out to their fullest extent I can actually lead to some things that I don't think Paul intended but because of the length of that discussion we won't take it up today but there is a third option and I would set this before you, at least for your prayerful consideration.

Paul could be referring, Paul could be referring to the false teachers and to those in the congregation that followed them. This seems to fit the context of the letter well and Paul would be using the word unbelievers in a purposefully shocking manner because these are people that are professing to be Christians and Paul is here calling them unbelievers. The Corinthian congregation was divided. Some followed Paul which meant that they believed the truth as it is in Christ Jesus and some followed the false teachers which meant that they rejected Paul and they rejected Paul's teaching This is one of the reasons that Paul began his letter, asserting his God-appointed authority. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God.

And later, in chapter 11 verses 13 through 15 he says of the false apostles that they were deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness So Paul had opened his heart to the Corinthians. He wanted them to respond by opening their hearts to him and he wanted them to show show the sincerity of this by separating themselves from the agents of Satan and the deluded people of the congregation that followed them which he now denotes as unbelievers And that is because they have proven themselves to be unbelievers. They have rejected Christ's apostle and his doctrine. And that principle still abides. Those who reject the apostle and his doctrine reject the Christ of the apostle.

Now having said all that, Whichever of these views we take, and I lean to the third one, Paul's main point is still clear and obvious in all three. Christians and unbelievers are an impossible spiritual match. Secondly, then Paul asked five pointed questions to support his command for this separation. These five questions show the radical incompatibility of believers and unbelievers. First, what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?

The word fellowship here means a relationship involving shared purposes and activity. So what purposes and activities are shared by those who do right and those who do wrong? Now these are shared spiritual activities. We're not talking about the fact that we all need to eat or that we all go to school or those kinds of things. What spiritual things are there in common with those who do right and those who do wrong?

And the answer is none whatsoever. The second question, what communion hath light with darkness? Now communion means a close association that involves mutual interests and sharing. What spiritual mutual interest and sharing exists between those who live in holiness and those who live in wickedness None whatsoever. What concord hath Christ with Belial?

Concord means agreement. Agreement. What agreement is there between Christ, the living God come in the flesh and Belial which is another name for Satan. What agreement is there between Christ and his followers and Satan and his followers? None whatsoever.

Paul just keeps driving this home. He wants to make sure that no one misses the point. Unequal yoking is destructive of Christianity. It is destructive of the Christian life. What part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

Well, What part do believers and unbelievers share spiritually? None whatsoever. And finally, what agreement hath the temple of God and idols? Can there be any agreement between the worshippers of God, the one true living holy God, and the worshippers of stone and sticks, Gold and silver, nothing whatsoever, nothing whatsoever. Unrighteousness, darkness, belial, unbelief, and idols all stand in direct opposition to the living God.

They all stand in direct opposition to his infinite holiness and his righteousness. Paul was not commanding Christians to avoid unbelievers altogether. And that's what some people take away from this passage this is not what he's saying of course we are to preach the gospel to them we are to love their immortal souls We are to show them the glory, the beauty of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 9 through 11, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters, for then must your needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such in one no not to eat that's powerful language brethren And I assure you that if out of love for Christ, we gave our hearts to walking in this, our churches would look different.

There would be a more genuine sense of the fear of God. Paul is forbidding believers to become entangled or hitched, harnessed to those within the church who profess faith in Christ but follow idolatry and false doctrine. That fits the context, and I believe very well. Thirdly, Paul then gave the Corinthians reasons for separating from false believers. Having driven this point home with these five rhetorical questions, Paul then gives an astonishing revelation to support his command.

Everything right now is supporting that command. No unequal yoking. Paul had asked a question regarding the agreement of the temple of God with idols he then declared a stunning revelation for ye for ye you Corinthians, are the temple of God. You're the temple of God. So Paul is saying, The temple is the dwelling place of God, the place of his holy presence and it must be kept pure and you Corinthian believers are now that temple and this is why he is demanding in love fatherly love but profound and unmovable love don't yoke with these unbelievers Paul had made this point clear in 1st Corinthians as well in chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 he says, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God." Brethren, that's overwhelming!

That is overwhelming! Human beings, faulty sinful human beings, now the dwelling place of Almighty God. And the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. Corinthians, wake up. If any man defile the temple of God.

This is not about smoking a cigarette. The temple of God here is the church. Now it's true our bodies are individual, yes, and we should take care of them, yes, we're all living stones in the temple, yes, but he's talking about not messing with the church. It's Christ's church, his blood-pawed possession, his dearly and eternally loved people. And it's where God dwells.

Don't contaminate it. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy for the temple of God is holy which temple ye are. That's astonishing if you're familiar at all with the Corinthian epistles. And if you're familiar at all with your own flesh, the holy dwelling place of God. The place of God's holy presence was no longer a tent carried through the wilderness, nor was it stone, wood, and gold building in Jerusalem.

God's address, the location of his holy presence, was now the gathered people of God. The gathered people of God. I'm looking at the temple of God this morning. Does that grip us? And this is the heart of Paul's argument, brethren.

This is the core of what's going on in this passage. Because they are God's holy dwelling place, they must not be united to anything spiritually impure. Secondly, Paul reminded them of God's promises and God's covenant language. And this is where the promises do come in. Paul quoted the Holy Scriptures as he so often did as he was making his bold points as he was teaching about Christ or the church.

He would preach gloriously from the Old Testament Scriptures. The first thing he says here is, as God hath said, there is no greater or stronger affirmation in existence than the three words God hath said. If God has said that he will or will not do something, nothing in this entire universe can change it or stop it. Nothing whatsoever. All the kings, queens, presidents, scientists, dictators, all the armed forces of all the nations, all the powers of nature itself, all the legions of demons cannot stop, cannot change God's purpose.

God hath said, and what has he said here? Upon that infallible foundation Paul recites God's wonderful promises. I will dwell in them. Brethren, that applies to us. It was true of the Corinthians but it applies to us.

God dwells. The holy almighty sovereign of heaven and earth dwells in his people. That's his promise. It cannot be otherwise. It cannot be otherwise.

I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God. All those beautiful words. These are words of love. These are words of covenant love. They're God's many, goddesses many, as Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians.

There are lots of idols around the world, lots of things that people call God, but there's only one true almighty holy holy holy God and he said I will be your God praise the Lord We'd be bowing down before the sticks and the stones if he hadn't in his glorious grace rescued us. Brethren, this is remarkable. Brethren, this is remarkable. So as we look at these particular promises, they should grip our hearts. These are unchangeable.

I will be their God. They will, you will be His people. His people, that beautiful possessive pronoun. His. He has bought us with the blood of Christ, the broken body, the shed blood.

We are His by purchase, His and His forever. Now he drew these, Paul drew these from Leviticus, Isaiah, Ezekiel, 2 Samuel, and Deuteronomy He chose these old covenant passages regarding Israel's covenant worship and he applied them to the New Covenant believers in Corinth. Well fourthly based upon these promises Paul commanded the Corinthians to be a separated people. Here are wonderful promises set before us. Paul quotes now three Old Testament commands and he applies them to the Corinthians once again.

Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. The word wherefore means based on what I have just said, meaning those glorious promises. The unclean thing again points to idolatry or anything that's spiritually unclean. So then like old covenant Israel before them, God's new covenant people, the Corinthians, were to be separated from idolatry in all its forms. They were to be separated from all spiritual uncleanness in all their forms.

And the same holds true to us today, brethren. The same is true. With that In mind, the command is clear. Come out! Come out!

Come out from among them! That is, don't be closely associated, don't be allied, don't be unequally yoked in relationships with idolaters, with false teachers, with false teaching that will compromise your faith and lead you to your fall. Your identity is that of a worshiper of the crucified and resurrected Christ. Their identity is that of worshiper of a false god. Nothing in common.

Ox, donkey, doesn't work. Heaping scripture upon scripture, Paul then takes three more of God's promises from Ezekiel, 2 Samuel and Isaiah. I will receive you. I will receive you and will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters and these are beautiful words as well saith the Lord Almighty The one true and living God receives the likes of us. If you know anything about your heart, you should be in awe.

If the Holy Spirit has ever dealt with you, you would simply agree with God that all you deserve is to be picked up immediately and cast into hell. But God in his glorious work through Christ has drawn us to himself. He receives sinners like me and like you through Christ. The sovereign God of heaven and earth is gracious. He is merciful to those who repent and believe on Christ if they believe on the resurrected Son of God it will lead to their separation from unbelievers.

Is your life telling on you right now? What are you drawn to? The holy and the pure things of God. Do you fear God? Or Do you hear that world and find it more attractive?

Paul, by the power of the Spirit of God, is talking to us. Who are your friends? Who do you hang with? Do you love to be with people that love Christ? Do you want to be with those who pray?

Do you want to be with those who love the Word of God, want to talk about the Word of God? I don't mean that's all they ever talk about. Of course, we talk about mundane and daily things. That is a part of living. But is the character of their life rooted into living God?

If not, you may be making an unholy alliance that may ultimately drag you to destruction. Who are you yoked with? Who am I yoked with? Who am I making alliances with that would bring glory to God or bring my ruin? Or bring my ruin.

Paul is not talking about the unbelievers in the world in this context but those in Christ's congregation who profess to be believers but are following false teachers and their lives show it. There's no pursuit of holiness in their lives, not a biblical godly life. Don't pay a lot of money for MP3s and conferences and guys that tell you that grace basically gives you a license to live like the world and still expect heaven. And there are lots of them out there. The fifth thing to consider then is this, arguing from God's promises.

The apostle commanded God's people to perfect holiness in the fear of God. Chapter 7 verse 1. Finally my brethren, Paul restates the same theme found in verses 14 and 17. Having therefore these promises dearly beloved you hear his heart he's reproving these people very strongly but he loves them with a godly holy love a love that's willing to risk their love to tell them the truth. Dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves, he includes himself, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

The glorious promises that God set before the Corinthians are applied to us today and they are as important to us as they were to those Corinthians. Almighty God, sovereign, holy, will dwell in us. And he will walk in us. We will walk with him. He will walk in us.

He will be our companion all through this life what good works we do will come from his glorious grace and strength the one true living God will be our God We will not be groveling in the dirt before idols of wood and stone. The things that arise from the imaginations of demons and fallen men. We will be his people, not self-centered rebels on our way to hell, will be his people, his eternally loved people. He will receive us. He will receive us in Christ.

He will be our great, holy, heavenly Father in Christ, and he will adopt us poor, wretched, sinful rebels, and make us his sons and his daughters in Christ. Brethren, when I'm reminded of my life outside of Christ, I would be happy, happy to be received into heaven just as a forgiven criminal but the Lord doesn't say okay I've simply wiped out your crimes He comes and embraces us and makes us his sons and his daughters. He loves us. He gave his son for us. He's given us his spirit.

He's given us His Word. He's given us His people. He's going to make us holy. We are His temple. And that's why it needs to be pure.

That's why who we're yoked to matters. We've got these great promises that fill our souls with joy, with light, with encouragement, with strength, eternally loved, Presently redeemed, forever preserved and glorified. We have it all in Christ. And having spoken of the superiority and the glory of the new covenant in chapter three, and then having made clear that any person in union with Christ is a new creature. In chapter 5, Paul now completes his argument for breaking off all associations with false teachers, false doctrine, and especially idolaters.

Based on this argument, he then commands these new covenant believers to perfect holiness, holiness of life in the fear of God. Perfecting comes from a Greek word here that means to bring to completion, to bring to the intended goal. We're not there yet. I want to be, But we're not there yet. But we're on the way by the grace of God, perfecting, maturing.

This is what Paul wants. He wants these Corinthians to grow up they're showing remarkable spiritual immaturity he wants them to grow up and to mature in holy living because of who they are the temple of the living God But this would not be possible if they were yoked to false teachers, false doctrine. Paul is not telling them to do something in their own strength. He is not beating them with the legal whip. He was saying, live according to what you are.

God dwells in you. You are the location of God's holy presence in this world. The sovereign, almighty God, indwells you by his power, his love, and he has adopted you as his children. Live like that. Live in that.

Live because of that. And don't be unequally yoked. In fact, he wanted them to cleanse themselves. How about that language? I grew up in a form of Christianity that would always say, well, I can't do anything.

God just has to do everything. Well, there's a certain truth there, but that's also a spiritual anesthetic to obedience. You must have God's grace but here's the good news you have it you have it obey your God he dwells within you This is how Paul is encouraging them. You have it. So cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and Spirit.

Well how do we do that? Well it's by grace through faith in Christ and then obeying him. Paul rarely separates our state from our actions. We have to separate them to understand the Christian life, but he doesn't take them and never set them apart in corners away from each other. If you're a Christian, you're to be walking with Jesus Christ.

Your life should be speaking that God dwells in you. That's hard to believe some days, isn't it? Maybe you're having one of those days, But take heart. God's promises never fail. He dwells in His people.

Get on your face, cry out to Him, love Christ, trust Christ, and then walk with him by his grace for his glory. Well, based on all of this, Paul expects a reciprocity. I'm opening my heart wide to you Corinthians. I want you to open your heart back to me." And he's not saying, I want you to sit there in Corinth and just really emote. I want you to really have good feelings about me.

That's not what he's talking about. He's saying break off the ties with false teachers and false doctrine and purify the temple of God and that's who you are. That would be love back to Paul. That would be love back to Christ. That would be love to the glorious triune God.

To the glorious triune God. All of grace and yet that grace is the fuel in the engine of our service to the Lord. So based on these precious promises of God in the text Paul exhorted the Corinthians to prove their love and that would mean breaking off these yokes, these bad destructive alliances and what should lie at the very heart of this separation in holiness? What would motivate them to such a holy endeavor? Holy endeavor the fear of God perfecting holiness in the fear of God in the fear of God let's make a few applications the first one is this As the living temple of our holy God, we must not make alliances with false teachers and false doctrine.

It's been said many times before, everyone is a theologian, you're either a good one or a bad one, but everyone here has got a theology. You believe something, you've got a doctrine. The issue is, do you have Paul's? Do you have Peter's? Do you have John's?

Do you have Christ's? I have to ask myself, One of the men that God used in my conversion, in a conversation, once said something to me that has never left me. He was a very bold man, and he preached with extraordinary power. He preached a big, sovereign God. And we were sitting on his front porch rocking chairs, Louisiana, beautiful landscape, And he said, I'm not afraid of running off with the piano player.

I'm not afraid that the church is going to find me with my hand in the till. In the till but I'm scared to death that I will get some crazy doctrine and feed it to Christ's sheep. Pastors, better be thinking in those terms. We ought to fear feeding Christ's sheep something that's not the food that he's giving out. We must not make alliances with false teachers and false doctrine.

Brethren, in our day this very subject alone could be a series of messages. It really could. Consider just these three examples. I'm only going to give you three. One, some Christians marry unbelievers, sometimes outright infidels in the hopes that they will eventually see the light, missionary dating and missionary marriage.

Believe it or not Luther actually advocated that at one point. Guess he'd never talked to Scott. But the fact is, some people don't think about the importance of a relationship that's supposed to last for the rest of your life and they don't think about the spiritual condition of the individual to whom they're going to share that life sometimes they will marry nominal Christians but it goes to church we need some dads with radar all right and you can pick up on these guys when they come in the door usually and you want them to know that You have that radar. You want them to be very well aware of it. It's not just somebody that goes to church, oh, she's pretty, and she goes to church.

It's, do they love Christ? Do they walk with Christ? Is there any evidence that that individual loves Christ more than they love you. That's the one you want. That's the one you want.

While God in His grace may save some that do this, it is exceptionally rare. I know women right now that used to sit in Bible studies that I taught that are as miserable as they can be but they've had to learn how to love and trust Christ in a miserable marriage. That's an unequal yoke and it's a lifetime one. Now I want to say something very clearly. This passage is not primarily about marriage.

A lot of people teach it that way. It's not about marriage. This is simply an application of unequal yoking. There are as many as there are individuals, I'm quite sure. But the nature of Paul's argument would include marriage.

Number two, listen, in shocking numbers, Baptists and Protestants, seminaries and theologians, and entire churches of every sort have made deadly alliances and associations with the Church of Rome. Some professing believers have even left the faith and have embraced the damnable heresies of the papacy. We love, read your confession. As some people say well I have an exception here. I don't believe that the Pope is the Antichrist.

Do you believe that someone who says that he is Christ on earth is an Antichrist? We love the souls of Roman Catholics. I married into a very large Roman Catholic family as a lost man. I love them and we must preach the gospel of God's grace to them. We don't stand in a corner away from them.

We show them the glory of Christ but God forbids us to be unequally yoked. Their errors of the mass, an infallible pope, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Mediatrix, that's blasphemy. Prayer to the saints and other abominations are precisely the kinds of things that Paul forbids. He forbids this. This is what he's talking about.

Cleanse the temple. Christ's doctrine. The Apostles' doctrine. That's healthy. That's good for the soul, but not false doctrine.

This is not about ignoring Roman Catholics. It's not about attacking Roman Catholics, but it doesn't mean we do not join in their false doctrine or their false practices. Number three, the same thing must be said about those who profess to be followers of Christ but are part of or support the LGBT movement. We love their immortal souls. We must present the glory and the beauty of a risen Savior to them.

We must show them the grace of God, the love of God, the mercy of God, the cleansing blood of the Son, the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, but we cannot make an alliance with them. God says, come out. One of the reasons our churches are so powerless is in our lack of the fear of God. We embrace so many ungodly things from doctrine to lifestyle. We need to pray that the Lord would come and clean house, cleanse us, show us our faults, grant us repentance, not tear each other apart.

We're good at that, but the point is to get rid of those things that we know are not in harmony with the doctrine of Christ. God's people, true Christians, are going to disagree about a lot of things and much of what I will say today will raise lots of questions that I hope you will spend a lot of time studying out. Number two. As the adopted sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, let us rejoice in the beauty of the new covenant. Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, is the eternal Son of God, come in the flesh as our prophet, priest, and king.

He has accomplished everything infinitely necessary to save us, to keep us in this world, and to usher us into the glories of the consummated kingdom. That is good news. That is glorious, stunning, overwhelming news. Do we believe it? Do we walk in it?

Is that our treasure? Do we have yokes somewhere along the way that are like non-conductors across our power line, shutting down our power as we walk with the Lord Jesus. Oh, my brethren, the glories of the new covenant are astonishing. Again, no time. It could be a series of messages itself.

But in his incarnation, Jesus identified with us. In his life, he perfectly kept the laws that we've broken. In his death, he paid the debt of our sin through his blood and his broken body. And in his resurrection, He triumphed over sin, He triumphed over death, He triumphed over Satan, and we are His temple. Praise the Lord.

He sent His Spirit to open our hearts, to make us new creatures, to bring us into union with him, that we might rule and reign with him for all eternity in unspeakable glory. The New Covenant and all the blessings of it, justification, sanctification, glorification, propitiation, all of the the treasures, the jewels, they're ours. We need to thank and praise God for the new covenant in Christ. And thirdly and lastly, as the recipients of God's great promises, God's great promises, let us pursue holiness in the blessed fear of God. We're learning about the fear of God.

I appreciated Brother Scott's eight categories last evening and the other things that we've heard thus far. We're hearing about the fear of God, but this doesn't just need to be something that's kind of academic, sits in the ears, drops out later on but something that we make our own, we hear, we see, it's the Word of God, it's there, no one's making it up, no one's forcing it into the text. Oh God come and give us that true and holy fear, that glorious fear, that precious fear, a fear worth desiring. Unbelievers do not fear God. If you are an unbeliever, you should be deeply, gut-wrenchingly fearful of God's astonishing judgment upon the wicked.

If you understand, and no one understands it to its fullness, but if you understood the awesome holiness and purity of God. If you understood the awful offenses, the stench, the filthiness of sin, and if you understood the unimaginable horror of the unceasing eternal misery, despair, and agony of hell. You would be like Nebuchadnezzar whose countenance was changed, his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loose and his knees smote one against the other. Your mind would reel with astonishment, your heart would explode with panic, Your body would shake uncontrollably and you would cry out with every fiber of your being for deliverance. Well come to Christ.

Why are you waiting? Come to Christ. He said come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. Why will you die?

Oh Jesus the blessed Son of God, look to Christ, change your mind, change your mind about your sin and believe this glorious gospel of the grace of God in Christ. Believe the sure mercies of Jesus, the Son of God. He will save you. He is willing. Doubt no more.

Says that great hymn. For believers, oh, the fear of God's an entirely different thing. Charles Bridges will have the last word here today. He said, what is this fear of the Lord? It is that affectionate reverence by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his father's law.

His wrath is so bitter and his love so sweet that hence springs an earnest desire to please him. And because of the danger of coming short from his own weakness and temptations, a holy watchfulness and fear that he might not sin against him. Our God loves us. Let us love and fear Him with this holy fear. Let us pursue separation and holiness of life in the love, grace, and mercy of Jesus Christ.

For more messages articles and videos on the subject of conforming the church and the family to the Word of God and for more information about the National Center for family integrated churches where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org. You