Sanctified For God

All right, well, we've come here to worship the Lord. We've come here to fellowship together. And we've also come here to learn and to hear the word of the Lord being preached.

I have been blessed with this section of the scriptures here in 2 Corinthians. When I was in North Carolina, they had asked me a few months ago to teach the youth in the Youth Bible School. And I was just in the middle, I think, of chapter 3, maybe chapter 4. And I told them, I thought, this would be a good youth Bible school lesson.

I have about five messages in chapter 3, and chapter 4, and chapter 5. And it just teaches on the new covenant and the blessing of the new covenant. And so I did. I taught chapters 3, 4, and 5 there in North Carolina.

And then when I was asked to come to Oklahoma, I felt like, you know, why not just go ahead and teach on it again? And so down in Oklahoma for a revival meeting, I taught the same messages, chapters 3, chapter 4, and chapter 5. And it was a blessing there also. So I'm really indoctrinated in chapters 3, 4, and 5. But we're now moving on here to chapter number 7. And some of you weren't here. We had a very sparse crowd.

What was it, two weeks ago when I was here last time? So I'm going to give a little bit of review before we jump into chapter number 7. In chapter number 6, Paul is addressing the church with regards to yoking together with unbelievers. And in chapter 6, in verse number 14, he says this. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

A yoke puts you in a union, a fellowship, a bond. Do not get in a yoke with an unbeliever. And we talked about a number of different ways that can happen.

We talked about marriages, not to yoke together with unbelievers. We talked about relationships. We talked about business.

We talked about investment. We talked about yoking together in our hearts, in agreement with unbelievers. If you go down through here, there's a number of verbs that describe what it means.

In verse 14, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? Why fellowship with unbelievers? What communion hath light with darkness? Why commune with unbelievers? And what concord hath Christ with Belal? That word concord is the word symphony. Why play in a symphony and try to make music together with people who are on the opposite page? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement, don't make agreements, hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God.

As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And here's the lesson for us. Verse 17, wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you.

Come out from these unequal yokes. You know, we talked about how that when you put a yoke together, you put two animals in there that are of the same nature. You put two oxen, you put two horses, you yoke up two of the same nature.

And so you don't put a believer with a new nature in a yoke with an unbeliever with a fallen nature. These two are gonna pull in opposite directions. They're gonna pull at different speeds.

It's not a good yoke to get into. And so we talked some about how we as Christians should not yoke ourselves together with unbelievers in many different ways. And we didn't even touch on all the ways that we should not do that, but many different yokes.

And here's why, and here's the heart of the Lord. Verse 17 says, wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. I will receive you.

Now here's the principle. If I'm over here in a yoke with an unbeliever, and then I want to get into the Lord's yoke when Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, and I'm still yoked with this unbeliever or this infidel or this devil worshiper, and I try to bring this yoke with my unbeliever over here and yoke up with the Lord, the Lord says, no, I don't want to do that. I want you to break this yoke.

And then you can come over and I will receive you and you can yoke up with me. Now, we need to be careful about yoking up with unbelievers. Sometimes it can be very subtle.

It's one of the reasons why I think we should avoid politics because in politics and in any social movement, for example, let's say you want to stand up for abortion. You know, you're against abortion and you get together with a big crew and you have a movement and you are agreeing with all these people. Yes, we don't like abortion, but what you don't realize is you're yoking up with Catholics.

You're yoking up with atheists. You're yoking up with Mormons. You're yoking up with all kinds of people who are enemies of the Lord.

In this, what may appear to be a good yoke, that's why it's a dangerous thing to be involved in the political thing. Yes, Donald Trump, and yes, we're doing all these good things, but if you jump into the bandwagon with the political thing, you're going to be holding hands with people that, whoa, I don't think I should be holding hands with you. Yes, we agree on small government.

Yes, we agree on many things that we don't like this woke stuff and we don't agree on gay marriage and all that stuff, but we begin to hold hands and yoke up with unbelievers and many times people that are atheists. Most Muslims I've met, they don't believe in gay marriage. So should I yoke up with them? Most Jehovah's Witnesses, most Mormons, most of them do not agree with those things that are happening in the world, yet I am encouraged not to yoke up with an unbeliever.

There are many atheists who don't even believe in God who have morals, so we need to be careful that in these unions that we are participating in, that we're not holding hands and yoking up in causes with people that are unbelievers. Just for the sake of learning here, turn to Haggai chapter two. That's a hard book to find.

It's between the two Zs there, Zechariah and Zephaniah. Haggai chapter number two. The Lord says, do not touch the unclean thing and I will receive you.

Well, back here in Haggai chapter two, there's a passage here that teaches on unclean things. In chapter two, verse 10, it says, in the four and 20th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, thus saith the Lord of hosts, ask now the priests concerning the law, saying, if one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment and with his skirt do touch bread or pottage or wine or oil or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priest answered and said, no. Then said Haggai, if one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priest answered and said, it shall be unclean.

That's interesting. So if I come along here and I have considered, let's say, consider me holy. This is an example, James.

Now, come on. I'm not gonna put James down here, but if I'm considered holy and I come across and I touch, and the word touch there means more than that, but if I touch or I fellowship, I touch someone who is unclean, how many of you know that my holiness wears off on him and he becomes holy? Doesn't work that way, does it? It never works that way. If you think as a child of God that you're gonna go in and fellowship and commune and have agreements with unholy people and it's going to help them get more holy, you're believing a lie.

That's why the Bible says to come out from among them and be separate and touch not the unclean thing. Now, how about this? If I'm unclean, and James is holy this time, and I come along, it says, and I'm unclean, and I touch him and I'm rubbing him, and will that uncleanness pass on? It says, yeah, yeah. If one that is unclean by a dead body, touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priest answered and said, it shall be unclean.

And so this is the reason why we're to come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. And that word touch, as we talked about, is not just touching them, it means to yoke together with them, to commune with them, to fellowship with them. Because if you do something like that, it's going to have an effect upon you.

I was in a situation where a young lady, and a lot of young ladies think that, well, I just date this guy, I kinda like him, he's not the perfect guy, but I'm gonna change him. I'm gonna change him by my character, my Christianity, I'm gonna change him, doesn't always work that way. And so unequal yokes.

That's what we talked about last time if you weren't here. And the promise is, verse 17, wherefore come out, I'm back in 2 Corinthians, I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians chapter six, verse 17, wherefore come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. I want to receive you, and I want to be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Now, here's something, I just throw this out, we talked about this last week, most of you weren't here, or two weeks ago. But that doesn't mean we walk around like, oh, you're an unbeliever, eh, I don't touch you. No, we love people, we try to win them.

Jesus, as we even heard this morning, Jesus was willing to reach out and to try to win them, but he was not hobnobbing and budding up with them, fellowshipping with them, communing with them, agreeing with them. You know the idea, I'm just gonna go down to the bar and hang out with my friends down there, we'll drink, we'll do all that stuff, because I'm gonna win them to Jesus. That doesn't work.

You can go down to the bar, stand up on the bar and start preaching to them, and preach to them Jesus, that's how you can win them. And so the idea here is yoking together with an unbeliever. So, we're gonna jump in here in chapter seven, verse number one, this is not the best place, and these are man-made chapter divisions, but it's not the best place here for a chapter division because it has this therefore in it.

Having therefore these promises. What are these promises? Well, God says, if you'll come out from among them, come out from the unbeliever, and separate yourself from them, and do not touch the unclean thing, I will receive you. I will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters.

Isn't that what we want? I mean, we desire for a relationship with the Lord, a father-son relationship, a father-daughter relationship, and so it's like the Lord's saying, I want to have this relationship with you, a real vibrant relationship with you, but in order for you to come to me and enjoy that relationship, you need to address some of those yokes that you have in your life with unbelievers, with infidels, with all the things that are mentioned here, with people who are contrary to the Lord Jesus. And by the way, we learned this in 1 Corinthians, although I taught this many years ago, but in 1 Corinthians, the letter to the first church there was some of you are, you're very involved in these idol worshipers, idol worships, there's demons and things associated with that, and you're going down to the temple. He even mentions it here in verse 16, what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? So breaking off those yokes.

And so having, verse one, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, he's talking to Christians here, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, holiness. So when a person is converted, the first call that a person ought to hear is the call to holiness. Be holy, for I am holy.

God is, Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica, he said this, for God has not called us unto uncleanness. Touch not the unclean thing, but he has called us unto holiness. Now in the context here, what is holiness? Holiness in this context, you know, many people have different ideas about what holiness is, but I wanna talk to you about holiness here in this context.

Having therefore these promises, if you'll come out from them and be separate, dearly beloved, and cleanse yourselves from all this filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Some of you are yoked up with unbelievers, you've married them, you fornicate with them. The Bible talks about if you're involved with a harlot, you become one with a harlot, you're yoked in the flesh and you're yoked in the spirit.

Your heart is involved with these things and that's the dangers of social media, we talked about this last time. Social media and all the things that are out there, our hearts get yoked up with them. We're yoked up with this podcast, we're yoked up with this gentleman over here and we're in this group and this group and all these yokes.

Here we're not walking around buddy-buddy, but we're buddy-buddy through the internet. We're yoked up. But holiness, we're called to holiness.

What is holiness? Well, holiness comes from the Greek word hegeos, which means separated, sacred or sanctified. Three S's there, separated, sacred and sanctified. We've already seen this word separated.

Verse 17, wherefore come out from among them and be separate. Be separated, separate yourself from the unclean. Now, one thing that I think many people have made a mistake on is they only separate from the unclean, but holiness is not only separating from the unclean, it's separating to God.

Separating from that which is unclean and unholy and then separating myself to him who is holy. A separation from and a separation to. I know many religious groups, some of you have probably been involved with them in the past, they separate, separate, separate from.

This is evil, this is evil. We gotta turn from this, we gotta repent, repent, repent, repent, repent. Everything is evil and we separate and we separate and we separate, but they never separate to God.

They separate from many different things, but they are not separated unto him. And if you notice there in verse 17 of chapter six, wherefore come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. That's separating from them and then he says, I will receive you, that's separating yourself unto him.

And I'll show you why that's important here in just a minute. And so there's a lot of people that talk about repent, repent, repent, and that's a good thing, but if that's all we do, I don't do this anymore, I don't do that anymore, I stopped doing this, that's what the Alcoholics Anonymous do, that's what the Muslims do, that's what a lot of religious groups do. You can't do this, you can't do that, and they separate from all manners of evil, but they're not separated unto God.

Jesus spoke about this when he talked about the Jews and the Jews were the very same way. I want to read to you what he said, and this parable he gave will help you understand what I mean here, but in Matthew chapter 12, you don't have to turn there, I'll just read it. He says this, when the unclean spirit, he's talking about this generation, the Jewish people, when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places and seeks rest and finds none, then he says, I'll return into my house from once I came out, and notice this, when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and garnished.

It looks good. It's empty, it's swept, and it's garnished. So something drove this unclean spirit out, and it's maybe, you know, this desire to get away from evil.

I want to turn from evil, turn from evil, and the Jews had a lot of rules and commandments to turn, turn, turn. The unclean spirit went out, and he walked around trying to find another house, couldn't find anything. So he gets back, comes back to his own house, he finds it swept, oh, that's good.

Somebody came in and cleaned the house up. It's all swept, and it's garnished, there's flowers, there's everything, there's some nice decorations. It looks like it's a good place, but the word that's most important there is it's empty.

It's empty. And you can reform, and you can repent, and you can turn, and turn, and turn, and turn away from all manner of uncleanness, and clean up your house, in a sense, and have it swept and garnished, but if it's empty, what's the next passage say? It says, then that unclean spirit go get seven more spirits worse than themselves, and they enter into the house, and the last state is worse than the first. Wow.

And so the point is this, that yes, clean out the house, sweep it, garnish it, but don't leave it empty. Have a forsaking of the unclean, but embracing the Lord. So true holiness is not only of the putting away, it's also the embracing of the Lord Jesus.

And that's important. Separation is, or holiness is separation from the unclean to an attachment to Him. Now there's another word here that defines holiness, and that's the word sanctified, or sacred.

That which is sanctified, or that which is sacred. And it goes back to the Old Testament idea of, you know, if we have this vessel over here, I'll use this candle. Lot of candles in the world.

Here's one of them. It's a nice looking candle. I don't know whose candle it is.

Maybe it's been here for a long time, but that candle is one of a million. Many of them look just as nice as that candle is. And that candle is a common candle.

It could be called a common candle. You could buy them at Walmart. There's nothing special about it.

But in the Old Testament, when this candle was said to, we're going to take this candle and use it in the house of God. This becomes a sacred, sanctified candle. It is now taken out from the common and it's made something that is sacred, something that is sanctified.

So for example, a loaf of bread in the Old Testament, as a common loaf of bread, you could eat it all you want. However, there was bread, that same bread in the temple, the show bread, you didn't eat it. It was special.

It had a special purpose. It was sanctified. It was sacred.

It was called out from the common to be used in the house of God. So here's the analogy. Here's you and me.

You and me who are unconverted, we're a part of the common people. Unconverted, unbelievers. Then we came to Jesus and we became special vessels.

Special vessels and those vessels are to be used in the house of God. They're sacred. Each one of you who believe on the Lord Jesus, you're not a common person.

You're a sacred one. You're special and you're sanctified. So a common vessel becomes a sacred vessel or a holy vessel.

It was separated from the common purpose and placed in the house of God to be used for a sacred purpose. And that's what happened to us. I'm going to read to you here in Hebrews.

You don't have to turn there, but in Hebrews chapter 9 it says this, For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and he sprinkled both the book and all the people saying, this is the blood of the Testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover, he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. That was a picture there.

I'm going to sprinkle the tabernacle and every vessel sprinkled, sprinkled with blood, sprinkled, sprinkled. And that is a picture of the blood of Jesus. When you get converted, you're sprinkled, you're sanctified, you're set apart.

This is not anymore a common human being. This is a human being that is sacred for the house of God. Amen.

That's why God made us priests and kings and prophets. All those things were to be used for the house of God. And so a holy person is one who is separated from the unclean and also separated unto God's service.

I no longer am a common individual. Now I'm a servant of God. I'm sanctified for the house of God and his purposes.

I don't think you'll find what true holiness is by just saying, I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm not going to do this anymore.

But what you need to acknowledge is, yes, forget that, lay them down. But now you're a vessel for the house of God. Here's what you need to start doing.

You've been washed in the blood of Jesus. You've been sprinkled by the blood of Jesus. You're a sanctified, sacred, holy vessel.

So that's where we're at if you're a believer. Holiness. So holiness is not only putting away, it's also embracing my purpose in life, what I'm here for, what I've been washed for.

For the service of God. Look here at chapter seven here in 2 Corinthians. Let's keep going here.

2 Corinthians chapter seven says, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit. That's the uncleanness that we're supposed to come out from in the context here. All the yokes, all the yokes that are flesh, all the yokes that are in the soul, the spirit of man, separate yourself from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Now, holiness is something that we're to be perfecting. It means to fulfill it further and further. It's a process called sanctification.

It's a process. I know when I was first converted, the Lord showed me about five or six sins. I thought those were the only sins that existed, these five or six, because those are the ones that the Lord showed me.

I need to repent. You need to get rid of these things. So I did.

I could list them for you. You say, well, those are bad sins. Yes, they were.

But as I began to read my Bible, and as it began to grow in grace and knowledge, I began to see there are more sins that I need to address. There are more issues in life than just my five or six. And so as I saw those, I began to, I need to lay this down.

I need to lay this down. And I saw, I need to pick this up. I need to start doing this.

So this became a process. God revealing my bad attachments and encouraging more good attachments to His purpose, yoking up with His plans. And it's been a 40-some year process.

Some of you, are you all in that process too? You know what I'm talking about? Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And again, this is written to believers, dearly beloved. So we are to detach from any unholy associations and then attach ourselves to holy associations.

Come out from among them and come attached to my people, the people of God. Now I wanna comment on something here because this is something we face. There are people who take this phrase in chapter six, verse 17, wherefore come out from among them and be you separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.

They use that to detach from everybody. You know, everybody. This person over here doesn't do the thing.

I think they should do it. So I'm gonna detach from them. And this family over here doesn't do the things I think they should do.

And so I'm gonna detach from them. And pretty soon you have these families that I've met them all over the place who are all by themselves. And their justification is this, we'll come out from among them.

You know, they don't have everything in order over here. So we're gonna come out from among them and we're gonna come out from among these people. And pretty soon all over the place, they're sitting by themselves, idle with no fellowship.

I say it this way, no one is good enough for them. No one is clean enough for them to fellowship with. Now I want you to notice here the context.

Again, context is important. But back here in 2 Corinthians 6, 14, it says this, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Unbelievers.

This is what we're talking about. Unbelievers. Come out from among them, saith the Lord, from unbelievers.

That doesn't mean we're always separating from God's children. Now there is a place in the Bible where we can separate from God's children. It's called church discipline.

And there's a time when people who are in willful transgression, we need to address that. And as the Bible says, bring it up one on one, then take two or three, and then bring it before the church. And if they're still obstinate and do not want to repent, then we're to separate ourselves from them with grief.

Count them not as an enemy, but admonish them as a brother. Grief, it's kind of like our body here. There comes a time when you get an infection in your hand or your foot, and you work on it, you try your best.

The doctors try whatever they can. They go to extremes, but finally, it's unwilling to heal. So the last ditch effort is to do what? Cut it off.

It's called amputation. That's, Brother Wolf, here's a doctor, that's the last option. Is that right, Brother Wolf? That's the last option.

You try everything possible. Then you have to amputate one of your members. And that's a sad day.

A lot of grief over it. You know, we saw this, and we're going to see it again here next time, but in 1 Corinthians 5, there's a man committing adultery, wicked stuff, and he was glorying in it. It's like he wasn't even grieved.

And Paul said, this is not good. This is nasty. That not only is he committing sin, but he's glorying in it.

And so he encouraged them to put away from yourselves this wicked person. So there is a place. For us to separate from even those who claim to be believers, if they're involved in willful sin.

But this is talking about believers here. The unclean. By the way, if you're a believer, you're clean.

You're washed in the blood of Jesus. Touch not the unclean thing is a reference to an unbeliever. And so, brothers and sisters, it's not for us to separate from someone who's weak in the faith.

It's not for us to separate from people who are having faults or struggling with issues. It's not for us to do that. And keep this in mind as I thought about this.

This is written to the church at Corinth. Do you realize how many problems they had in that church? Just read the first two letters. There's all kinds of problems going on in that church.

And I won't list them all, but we've seen a lot of them. So we are to be perfecting holiness. Putting off the old man and putting on the new man.

And this is something we're to pursue. So, as I reminded you last week, is there any connections? Is there any yokes that you have in your life? You know, I think as we preach the Bible and as we're perfecting holiness, there ought to be probably people here, my own heart, that, you know, I need to break a yoke. I'm connected.

I'm yoked up with an individual. It's an unbeliever. I don't need to be in that yoke.

I'm yoked up in an internet situation with an unbeliever or a group that is a group of unbelievers and I'm in agreement with them. What agreement hath Christ with Belial? How can I be in agreement? I need to break yokes because I want to be in a relationship with my Father. And I want Him to receive me.

So we're to be perfecting holiness. Is that what you're doing? I trust it's perfecting holiness in the fear of God. That's a pursuit.

Let me read to you here another passage. It's a very familiar one. It says this.

Follow peace with all men in holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any man fail to the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. So follow.

Pursue. Pursue peace with all men. Amen.

Let's start with that one. Pursue peace with all men. And holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

Peace. Not bitterness. Lest any root of bitterness spring up and trouble you and many be defiled.

Pursue peace with men. Holiness. Not like Esau.

A fornicator. A profane person. You know what profane is? Profane is taking this, which is sanctified for the house of God, and using it for profane purposes.

That's profane. And that's what Esau did. He took his birthright, which is a wonderful thing for a Jewish young man, firstborn to have, and he treated it as nothing.

He profaned it. So how do we treat the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus? The fact that you've been sanctified, set apart, sprinkled in the blood of Jesus, and wanting to be used for the house of God. Well, let's keep reading down here.

I have a couple of things I want to share with you in 2 Corinthians. Let's keep going. 2 Corinthians 7, starting in verse 1. 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.

Now I like verse 2. It says, receive us. We have wronged no man. We have corrupted no man.

We have defrauded no man. Now notice it says this. Come out from among them and receive us.

Come out from them and receive us. Break off those yokes with the unbeliever and establish yokes with us. Don't have fellowship with the unbeliever, but have fellowship with us.

By the way, all these words are good for us. Fellowship and communion and concord and agreement and all these words that we're not to have with unbelievers, we are to have with believers. Break your yoke with them and then yoke up with us.

So Paul is inviting them, come, receive us. We have wronged no man. We have harmed no man.

We have defrauded no man. We have corrupted no man. And that's why I truly believe that if you are breaking yokes with unbelievers, what you ought to do is establish yokes with believers.

Amen. Not just sit here in the middle, being alone and having no yoke. You can establish with God's people.

Yes, you broke off yokes of the unbeliever and the unclean, but now come here and establish. And Paul says, receive us. The Bible says to not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.

And so much the more, we actually need each other. Amen. We cannot live independently.

We cannot live here in the middle, having forsaken all that stuff and say I'm holy without having embracing God and His people. A lot of evil is done in association with others. Thank you, James.

You know how this is in human nature. You take one person and that person can do evil, but if he gets a buddy, or maybe two or three, he can do a lot of evil. The Bible says not to run with a multitude to do evil.

And so oftentimes we get involved in sin because we're yoked up. We're yoked up. And because we're yoked up over here, it opens the door for sin and activity that's not good.

But what happens if we get yoked up over here? It opens the door for good things. Good things. Good activity.

And so the opposite is also true. We are at our best when we are yoked together. I think it's interesting that when Jesus sent out His disciples, He did not send them out one by one.

And if you find Paul, as you go through the book of Acts as we did, he was always with a group of people. He was always with a team. Whether it was Silas or Timothy or Barnabas or Titus or many of these individuals that are named, He was always yoked together with believers.

Christians are not to be an island unto themselves. It doesn't work good. Psalm 1, many of you have it memorized.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, nor stands in the way of sinners. And so, before we move on here, holiness is a rejection of yokes with unbelievers and an embrace of yokes with God's children. The pursuit of holiness.

Let's keep reading here in verse 3. I'm going to read down through verse number 7. I want you to notice how many times this word comfort is mentioned here. Verses 3-7 I speak not this to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die and to live with you. Great is My boldness of speech towards you.

Great is My glorying of you. Can you imagine? This church is having a lot of problems. Great is My glorying of you.

I am filled with comfort. I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulations. We're going to see here in a bit that when God sent Paul to Macedonia, he had a lot of persecution that came his way.

Verse 5 For when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Without were fightings, within were fears. You know, you think of Paul never being afraid, but he says, listen, when we came into Macedonia, there was so much turmoil, there was so much rioting, there was so much fighting outside of me, inside of me, I was getting fearful.

Verse 6 Nevertheless, God that comforteth us, comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus. And not only by his coming, but by the consolation. That word's the same word for comfort.

Wherewith he was comforted in you when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me, so that I rejoiced the more. Now, notice this idea of comfort and this idea of joy and rejoicing. You know, Paul experienced something that I don't think many of us experience, but he had experienced that the more he laid his life down and suffered for the church, and by the way, he came into Macedonia, he was led by a vision, you remember the vision he had to come into Macedonia and help us? And so he goes, he says, it's bad here.

He says, man, there was all kinds of turmoil. When I got here, and trouble on every side, and fighting, and inside there was fears, but he talks about how that he had joy in it all, he had great comfort in it all, and Paul experienced, his experience was as he laid down his life for the people of God, for building the church here in Macedonia, he experienced great comfort and great joy. He even says it, I am exceeding joyful in all of our tribulations.

Boy, wouldn't that be something. Exceeding, I mean, I'm happy. I am happy in my heart.

I'm so happy in this tribulation I'm going through. Reminds me of those disciples after they took a beating there in the book of Acts, they went away rejoicing. And so he acknowledges that.

Who do you think was causing that joy in him? Who do you think was bringing all that comfort in him? You know, in John 14, 15, and 16, and we learned this a number of years ago, but the Lord is preparing them as he leaves to go out into this world and face the difficulties that they're facing, and he talks in John 14, 15, and 16 about the comforter. The comforter. He talks about rejoicing.

He talks about joy. My joy give I unto you. He has such a different perspective that we have suffering and difficulty in trying to help this world and bring people to Jesus.

That's going to make me depressed. No, a lot of us are depressed because we're not involved in that sacred work that we're supposed to be involved in. You don't get depressed.

Just live for yourself. Come out and stand right here and just be alone. The comforter will come.

And he talks about here five times the comfort that he felt. And I'm just going to share with you here what I believe. You read the book of Acts and we went through this, but Jesus shows up during these times and you say, why does Paul get all these visions? And I don't.

Well, maybe we should consider. Look with me to Acts 18 here and I'll close with this. In Acts 18, in verse number 1, it says, after these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth.

So here we are. This is the place that Paul is writing about. The church at Corinth.

He comes to Corinth. We're not going to read the whole thing, but verse 6 says, when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean from henceforth.

I will go unto the Gentiles. So he's facing some opposition. And then in verse 7 it says, and he departed thence and entered into a certain man's house named Justice, one that worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.

And Crispus... By the way, when Paul writes these letters, Crispus is there and he's reading these letters. The chief ruler of the synagogue believed on the Lord with all his house and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision.

Now there's a couple of places in the book of Acts where Jesus actually visits Paul. One was when he was in Jerusalem facing a lot of difficulty, but here he gets this vision in the night and he sees the Lord. And the Lord says this to him, Be not afraid.

Remember he said he had fears on the inside? Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. Now I just picture the Lord there seated at the right hand of God. He's ascended up and he's watching his church and he's given the comforter to help them along.

He sees Paul. Maybe Paul's really fearful. Maybe Paul, he says, he's out inside where fear is.

Man, this looks like a bad situation and there's riots here at Corinth and I don't know about this situation. And so the Lord says, I'm going to go visit him. We'll go visit him.

He comes down, shows him a vision. Paul, here I am. I want to talk to you, Paul.

How many of you got a vision from the Lord lately? Paul, listen. Don't be afraid. I'm with you.

Not only that, but you've got a lot of people here that are mine. Right here in this city, so don't think you're alone. And so the Lord is encouraging him, comforting him in all his afflictions.

The Lord is supporting his work. One of the burdens that Paul has on his heart, and I'm going back here to 2 Corinthians and I'll finish with this verse here, but one of the burdens that he has, and we'll talk about this next week, is for this man who is involved in this immorality in 1 Corinthians 5, this sexual relationship with what appears to be his mother-in-law. And between letters one and the second letter, this man must have repented and broken his heart.

Because here in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 7, it says, And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me. Now, in the first letter in 1 Corinthians 5, they were glorying in this sin. Glorying in it.

Now they're mourning. They're mourning. Lord, have mercy on us.

We made a big mistake. And you know, Paul's excited about that. Because starting in verse 8 next week, we'll talk about this.

This man found repentance and healing. And he got his heart right with the Lord. And I'm sure Paul said it's worth it all.

I don't care what I have to go through. It's worth it all. All this is worth the labor that I'm involved in.

So our lesson here these last two weeks has been come out from among them. I want you to search your heart again today and just ask yourself this question. Am I yoked up? Am I yoked up with God's people? Or do I have yokes in my life with unbelievers? And address those yokes.

Because God wants you to come out to Him without any attachments, any yokes, unclean yokes. Because He wants to be a father to you. He wants you to be a son and daughter.

And He wants you to perfect holiness in the fear of God. So good news here this morning is every one of you who are a believer, you are a special vessel. Sanctified.

Set apart by God. Of all the billions of common people in the world, every believer is chosen out and set apart and sanctified. This is my Son.

And those vessels were to be used in the house of God. And so you have a ministry. You have a place.

I would encourage you to find your place and become very active as the vessel that God has called you to be. So let's address those yokes and perfect holiness in the fear of God. And next week we'll talk about this man who has found repentance and has got his heart right.

So let's close and we'll open it up for anyone who'd like to share this morning. Lord, we thank You again for the Word of God that keeps us and sustains us and even as we heard this morning that helps us to run the race with patience. And Lord, Your calling, I know many of us, to truly perfect holiness in the fear of God in my own heart.

And Lord, to free ourselves from the yokes of bondage that we find ourselves in. And Lord, I can't speak into those things, but You can even as we talk about them and pray that the Spirit of God would remind us and bring to light those things that we need to depart from. Those things that are yokes of uncleanness that we could find repentance, Lord, and continue to perfect ourselves in holiness in the fear of God.

So, bless the congregation here, Lord, and give us the grace to, as the Bible says, to not only to will, but to do of Your good pleasure. Motivate us and stimulate us, Lord, to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. And so we ask Your blessing upon these words, as they fall upon our hearts.

In Jesus' name, Amen.