Guidelines for Singleness and Marriage part 1-6, complete edition

Guidelines for Singleness and Marriage part 1-6, complete edition

By John MacArthur

First Corinthians chapter six, beginning at verse 12 ... the Lord really enabled e to get this work done for Corinthians and Jude this week, even though I was gone. And so I really believe that this is His message for this time because He so superintended the time I and the study that we w re able to finish what we felt we should have for you this morning.

I've entitled this section, "Christian Liberty and Sex" because that really is what it talks about and you'll see that as we begin. We're continuing in our study in I Corinthians to see the problems that plagued the Corinthian church. One of them was the problem of sexual immorality and that is the one dealt with in 1 Corinthians 12 through 20 and we'll look at it this morning. And in this passage he presents the Christian's perspective on morality.

Now let me say at the beginning, I remember when I was speaking out at Cal Stat Northridge one time in Rabbi Kramer's class. He asked me to speak on the subject of the Christian morality. And he said we wanted somebody to come in there and speak on Christian morality and de end it. And I knew that I was going into the lion's den because nobody's going to buy a Christian moral standard in this world who isn't a Christian. So at the very beginning of the class, I said, "Now I want to say something to begin with, I want to say that I recognize before I start that none of you are going to agree with this, none of you will accept it and none of you are at all going to feel that this is proper. You're all going to violently disagree with me,"

And, of course, youknow what does immediately. They're all saying, "Oh yeah?" See, if you put them on the right defense, see. They're already defending Christianity and they don't even know what it is, see. That's the college student...

So, I got all done and I said, "The reason none of you are going to buy this morality is because you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ and because you don't know Him you don't have any motivation for this." So immediately a student puts his hand up and says, "How do you know the Lord Jesus Christ, we might as well start there." So ... so we spent...so we spent about 40 minutes talking about that and the Rabbi kept saying, "We must get back to the subject." We never did get back to the subject much, but it's kind of a great time.

I say that just to say this. Unless you really know the Lord Jesus Christ, unless you're a Christian, unless you understand what it is to live for God, this kind of a morality is going to seem a little bit in left field. But this is what the Bible teaches. You see, the Corinthians had rationalized their sexual activity just like people today do. There are plenty of people who in the name of religion say, "Ah, you know, everything's taken care, we're free in religion, Christianity's made us free, so we live it up." There are plenty of other people, don't you hear this all the time? Say, "What's the big deal about sex; it's only biology, right? I mean, we're only animals. You don't get upset when dogs do it, why do you get upset when we do it?" You hear his all the time. "Man, it's just a biological thing, it's there, you o, you do it, you don't get all up tight about it, it's amoral."

Now the Corinthians had done the same thing. And, of course, they had a problem, too, because they lived in the city of Corinth andCorinth was synonymous with sex. In fact, the verb "to corinthinize" meant to have sex with a prostitute, That's how attached Corinth was to that kind of life. So they were saying, "Hey, our environment is overwhelming an, man, we figured out theologically it's all right and philosophically it's just a biological act and no big deal so we're doing it."

So, here a e the Corinthians, carrying another one of the cruddy things of their former life into the church. And this is the problem with every sing e difficulty the Corinthian church had. In the first four chapters, - that problem did Paul deal with? Division in the church. You know why they were divided in the church? They were divided over human leaders and human philosophy. Both of those were carry-overs from their former life.

In chapter five, the evil in the church was the evil of failing to discipline sin. A carry-overfrom their former lives when they were tolerant of sin.

In chapter six, the sin that we saw the last time we studied it, was the sin of suing one another and you remember, the Corinthian society loved t have lawsuits and they just carried that over into their Christian life. And here they were immoral before they were Christians, th just carried that over into their Christian experience.

So, all of the evils there were just dragged in from their former life. And Paul's going to hit another one of them, here it is, he's going to hit the sin of immorality and he's going to take apart their rationalization.

Now, you have your outline. Look at it and I'll show you the three things that the sin of sex does to the body. And these are the things that Paul points out. Three clear-pointed principles that show why sex sin must be excluded from the Christian life...even though we are free in grace: it harms, it controls and it perverts the body. Sexual sin harms? controls and perverts the body. That's Paul three fold argument.

Point number one, it harms, verse 12: "All things are lawful unto me but all things are not expedient." Stop right there. Now he says all things are possible within the area of grace but all things are not expedient. That word comes from a Greek word, sumpherowhich means, "to profit," p-r-o-f-i-t. All things are allowable but they're not all profitable. God will forgive, but, man, the price is high. Immorality is one of those things that God forgives. If you as a Christian do that, some of you undoubtedly have committed adultery or fornication as Christians, if you have done that, God has forgiven, totally and completely by the blood of Jesus Christ in His grace. But there's a price to pay. There's a high price because there's harm built into that sin.

I want to show you that by taking to Proverbs chapter 5, there is no other sin that a man or a woman commits that has built into it the deep-rooted damage that the sin of sexual immorality has. It has destroyed more people that drugs or booze ever together could have destroyed. And want to show you Proverbs chapter 5, this is really interesting and it's very, very practical. Proverbs 5, verse 3, we'll start here and we'll stay in Proverbs a while so join us there if you have your Bible

Proverbs 5:3, "For the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb and her mouth is smoother than oil." Oh listen, that stuff is very enticing. Honeycomb, lips and smooth ... you know. And the opposite comes in verse 4, "Her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged swordher feet go down to death; her steps take hold on Sheol." You see what you see is not what you get.

Now, he gives a little advice because of this. "Lest thou shouldst ponder e path of her life, her ways are unstable that thou canst not know hem. Hear me now therefore, 0 ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth." Now listen, you can't figure this out, she's subtle, she's sneaky. Now listen to me, "Remove thy way far from her an come not near the door of her house." You know, you're not going to have a problem committing adultery with somebody if you don't go where they are. Take a lot brains to figure that out. "Lest thou give thine honor unto others and thy years unto the cruel."

You know what happens when a person gets into that problem? They lose their honor, they lose their respect. Instead of being with honored people, they wind up with the cruel people. "Lest strangers be filled with y wealth." A person could actually come to the place where he loses is fortune. Many a man has destroyed his life over women. Many a man today is saddled with paying so much alimony he can hardly live himself. And all of his money is going out. "Even strangers are filled with your wealth and your labors be in the hands of an alien, or the house of an alien." People have lost their life and their livelihood to immorality. "And thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed. When you getold and you can't function anymore physically or sexually and you have absolutely nothing but the pain and the agony and the remorse and then you will say, verse 12, "How have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me." What a fool that I did what I did.

Look at verse 18. Now God isn't against sex. Oh no, He invented it. He's for it. Verse 18, "Let thy fountain be blessed," and that's talking literal about a man's ability to procreate, "and rejoice with the wife (if thy youth." Live it up, that's ... that's God's design that, sex is a fabulous thing, a beautiful thing. "Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe," speaking of deer like animals. "Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravished always with her love." I m n, this is great, you know, live it up, enjoy, see. "And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a foreigner? For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and He ponders all his going." why would you go off and commit adultery when you know that the Lord is what? Watching. He's watching.

Well, look at chapter 6, interesting section, verse 24. Now this is practical, listen to this. Verse 23 you better start, 'For the commandment is it lamp and the law is light and reproof s of instruction are the way of life." Now he says God's law is going to give you the right path and the right light and you're going to see the truth, here it comes. "Keep...to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a foreign woman." And foreign simply means other than your own. Now watch, "Lust not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids." Oh, you've got to watch those eyes. Always the sex symbol, you know, with the half-opened eyes ... oh, that sneaky thing. "Let her take thee with her eyelids," see, nothing new, folks. You know, Maybelline hasn't changed anything.

Now you see, what happens when this occurs in verse 26, "For by means of an unchaste woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread." Something as elevated and high and lofty as a man, designed in the image of God, is brought down as if he were nothing but a piece of bread. "And the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take f ire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?" Do you think you're going to commit sex sin and get away? You're wrong. You can't take f ire in your bosom without burning your clothes. That's pretty clear. "Can one go on hot coals and his feet not be burned?" verse 28. Verse 29, "So he that goeth into his neighbor's wife, whosoever touches her shall not be innocent." Verse 32, "Whoso commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding."

You know, it is stupid to commit adultery. Why? "Because he that doeth it destroyeth his own ... what?...soul." God may forgive it but that doesn't make it right and that doesn't make it smart.

Chapter 7, verse 5, this is interesting. "Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister, call understanding thy kinswoman that they may keep thee from the strange woman." Wisdom will keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words. Now he gives an illustration. "For at the window of my house, I look through my casement." He looks through his window frame, Solomon. "And beheld among the simple, ones, I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding." Stupid young person, and the world is full of them, just full of them. I'll show you why they're stupid. "Passing through the street near her corner..," Do you know that this old trade of prostitution hasn't changed a lot? They're still on corners; they've always been on corners wherever people are. So here's this stupid guy going down the street, a young guy, he doesn't have any sense, doesn't know wisdom so he thinks this is the way to live. And he comes near her corner and "He went the way to her house, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night." Isn't it always? "And behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot." That's usually ... you can tell them by the way they dress in those days, and even today. "Subtle of heart but secretly loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house, she's always out stirring up trouble. Now is she outside, now in the streets, and lies in wait at every corner."

Verse 13, "She caught him and kissed him." That's what's known as the direct approach. "And with an impudent face, said unto him, I have peace offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows." My religion is all taken care of, got that out of the way. 'Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face and I have found thee." Getting a little thick. "I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with embroidered work, with fine linen of Egypt; I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come let us take our fill of love until the morning, let us comfort ourselves with love."

It all sounds great, doesn't it? Ah, very enticing and alluring. The truth of the matter is in verse 19, "For my husband is not at home." Let's get back to brass tacks. "My husband's not at home, he's gone on a long journey and he's taken a bag of money with him." In other words, he's going to do business, "And he'll come home at the day appointed."

Now this is a stupid kid, remember? "With her much fair speech, she caused him to yield. with the flattering of her lips, she forced him. He goes after her straightway," now watch, "like a lover who is loved?" No, "Like an ox to the slaughter." Like a wise man to his fulfillment? No, "Like a fool to the stocks, till an arrow strike through his liver, as a bird hasten to the snare and doesn't know that it is for his life." Fool. Listen, for a Christian, God will forgive but it isn't going to help you to do this. It will harm. It will destroy. It will tear.

Look at chapter 91 verse 17, this is kind of practical, too. "Stolen waters are sweet, stolen waters are sweet ... there's a 'Certain adventure in adultery ... and bread eaten in secret is pleasant, but he knoweth not that the dead are there and her guests are in the depth of Sheol." Devastating.

First Corinthians 10:8 says that of the Israelites, 23,000 dropped dead in one day for committing adultery...23,000 dead in one day. I think of David, and I love David, and God forgave David and God loved David. And David's going to occupy a special place in heaven because God forgavehis sin. But poor David committed adultery. He went up on his roof, looked over, saw Bathsheba on a lower roof taking a sun bath and flipped out and said, "That's for me." And went rough the process and committed adultery. And then he wrote Psalm 1. You don't need to look it up, but you remember it? The man was absolutely devastated to the roots of his being. He paid for that sin every waking day of the rest of his life. He never forgot it, it destroyed him and his family. You read 51, Psalm 51, and you find that David was alone; he was totally lonely because that sin in particular has a way of making you lonely. It immediately isolates you because you're afraid somebody might find out. You feel all alone in your evil. David was sick, physically ill, sick literally and h I was guilty and his conscience was creating havoc and he poured out Psalm 51 in agony.

God forgave him, yes. He expressed it at the end of 51, God forgave him. That didn't change what it did to him. He paid a high price.

Second thing, sin of adultery not only harms, it controls. Look at 6:12 again. "All things are lawful for me," in the middle of the verse, "but I will not be brought unto the power of any." The Greek verb "to be brought unto the power" means to come unto the domination of or the power of something. And it really means to enslave. I will not be enslaved. And there is no more enslaving thing than sexual evil. This thing wants to subject and it does.

You know, there is in sexual activity a certain progression that enslaves. I can look back at just at the first time I ever had any kind of relationship with a girl at all and I remember I wanted to hold to her hand. I thought it's time for me to, you know, make some advances. After all, it was my third year in college. And...nor not really. But anyway, you know, there was this girl I liked and I remember as a kid, I've never forgotten this, but I wanted to hold this girl's hand. And so, it took me about an hour to get up enough nerve and I finally grabbed her hand, I'm sure about broke her knuckles, I just...you know. And I held her hand for a while and, man, you know, whoa-whoa, little things were oh-oh, you know and lightning was in my head and everything.

So, after awhile, you know, it got to be kind of, you know, sweaty hands and there wasn't a whole lot of thing, you know. And so I thought there's got to be more to life than this, see. And then, you know, there was a progression. You desire to touch and you put your arm around....I'll never forget the first time I kissed a girl. I mean, you know, it just...bells and the whole thing. You think back at that first experience. And all of a sudden you realize you're in a trap, man. And you're caught on this deal and where you going to go? Oh-oh, see, and you just get further and further on this thing. This is how the sexual thing works. It becomes an enslaving thing. And even people who go all the way all the time are always looking for the full gratification which they neverfind.

But, they become slaves of this thing. Here are the Corinthian Christians in the name of liberty losing their freedom and becoming slaves. In the name of Christian freedom, they had become slaves to their own desires. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, "This is the will of God concerning you that you be sanctified, even your sanctification that you stay away from sexual sin." The next verse says, 'Mat every one of you know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor." And the word "vessel" means "body." Every one of you know how to possess his body. Some say that word "vessel" refers to "wife," but I studied it again this week and I'm convinced more than ever it refers to the body that you know how to possess your body. If you're going to stay away from sex sin, 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says, then verse 4 says you have to control your body. You have to get control of lour flesh. In Romans 8:13, Paul put it this way, he said, "Kill the flesh, mortify the flesh, master the flesh, gain control."

And, you know, you can get into a situation where you're not in control at all. Whoa, you're...you've lost control. You get to the place where you're victimized by your drive. Keep it in control, Paul says. Possess your vessel. Control your body that you don't become a slave.

Paul put it, very interestingly. First Corinthians 9:27F very vivid. He was talking about boxing here. He says, "I fight not like one that beats the air." You say, "Who you fighting?" He says, "I'm fighting my body." Have you ever faced that? You ever fight your body? Oh, you know, whoa, body, hold it right there, see. Something starts tempting your body, you fight your body. Then verse 27, "1 keep under my body." That verb "to keep under, it could have probably been translated worse than it's translated there. I don't know why they translate ... the word is a very interesting Greek word, very picturesque, it's the word--for you Greek students--hupopiazoit means "to give a black eye to." He says, "I'm fighting.' You say, "What are you fighting, Paul?" My body and I just gave it a black eye. I got a straight shot in there and knocked it out. I have to beat my body into subjection. Why? Because even as a preacher I could become a...what?...castaway.

There are a lot of castaways, aren't there?, around. A lot of people who once named the name of Christ. Some who even once preached and because they didn't give their body a black eye and their lusts ran away with them and they sinned, they have become castaways, set apart from usefulness to God. Sin is a slaving thing and particularly this thing of lust becomes a driving compelling dominating passion and men are taken captive.

All sin has a progressive element. You read in Psalm 1:1, for example, that blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, or standeth in the way of sinners or sitteth in the seat of the scornful And you see the progression of sin. First he's walking, then he's standing, finally he's what? He's sitting. That's the progression of sin. You play around the edges, you get involved and plunk, you' e stuck. And James 1 talks about lust conceiving and bringing forth Sin and then sin conceives and brings forth death. There's this continuum. In 2 Timothy 3:13, it talks about evil men growing worse and worse and worse. Paul says, "Yes, all things are lawful, but you do that and it will enslave you, you'll become a slave." And I have never seen anything so enslaving in the lives of individuals as that particular area of sin.

A third thing, and this is the major part of the passage. And believe it or not, we'll run through it quickly. Sin not only harms, enslaves--sex sin--, but it perverts, verse 13. Quickly we'll look at it. And he gives three distinct purposes and designs for our bodies that are perverted by sexual sin. "Foods for the body," verse 13, "and the body for foods." That was their little statement. He says, "Wait a minute, but God shall destroy both it and them." You can't say, "Well, look the body's for food and food's for the body and sex is for the body and the body's for sex ... just, that's all there is to it. Just biological." You can't say that, because God is going to destroy food and God is going to destroy stomachs, that's the real word here, stomach. God is going to wipe that out. But the body is not for sexual sin, it's for the Lord and the Lord is for the body and I'll prove it to you, because God has both raised up the Lord and will also...what?...raise up us by His power.

Do you know why your body is different? Because your body someday is going to be what? Raised up. Your body isn't just a temporal commodity. You know, there's coming a time in this world where we're going to be raised. The Rapture ... some...we're just going to go, from the graves the bodies are going to be brought out of the grave. You say, "What if there's nothing left?" That's no problem for God; He just makes them all come together. We're going to be in heaven in bodies literal bodies. And so he's saying - Look, food-that is eating, the necessity for eating, the digestive processes of the stomach--that will all cease. God will wipe that all out. But the body, you, t e total man incorporated in that flesh, that is going to be glorified and transformed into heaven. So don't think that the biology of eating is equal to what you do with your body. In terms of its union, there's a big difference.

Now he gives three distinct purposes. First of all, he says your body is for the Lord. Verse 13, it is for the Lord. Eating is a natural function but sex is far more than a natural function, people. Sex, listen to his, is a spiritual union. It transcends the biological. . Lewis says in Screwtape Letters, "Every time a man and a woman e t r into a sexual relationship, a spiritual bond is established between them which must be eternally enjoyed or eternally endured." God s s I'm going to destroy stomachs and I'm going to destroy food, b t bodies? No. The Bible never saysGod's going to destroy eternal y the body. That body is going to be glorified. The body of a Christian is going to spend its eternity with Jesus Christ in a glorified state our bodies are not just biological commodities. They have biological aspects and biological functions but they are far beyond that. Between food and the stomach there is a horizontal line. Between my body, my person and the Lord, there is a vertical relationship and it must not be defiled because God wants me presented to Jesus Christ a chaste virgin, right? Spiritually. For a Christian to commit sex sin breaks and destroys the vertical relationship. The two are incompatible. Paul says you can't use that argument, it doesn't make it. Your stomach was made for food but your body wasn't made for sex, it was made for God. And within God's will, sex is included in marriage, outside of that you violate it. And the proof of it is in verse 14, God's going to raise your body out of the grave. Don't defile that thing which was designed to spend eternity with Him. You can't say sex is for the body and the body for sex. The body is for the Lord.

Second thing, he says not only is your body for the Lord but it is one with Christ. Look at verses 15 to 18, "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ," melos, the normal word for the member of a physical body. "Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a prostitute?" Megenoito, God forbid may it never happen. He says, "Look, you are one with Christ, you are the members of Christ. When you were saved, you were joined to Christ." Every one of us is a member of His body, isn't that right? Ephesians 1:22 and 23; 1 Corinthians chapter 12; Romans chapter 12, verse 5; we're all made one with Christ in His body. And if we are committing acts of sin, we are joining Christ to that prostitute. God forbid. Sex sin is sickening. It is unthinkable that I would use Jesus Christ in a sex relationship.

Could youimagine if Christ was on earth going to Him and saying, "Lord, I am going over here to commit adultery, would You please come and partake with me?" You say, "MacArthur that's blasphemous." You better believe it, but it's no more blasphemous than a Christian committing adultery because he's dragging Christ into it, right? You're a member of Christ.

Sex is a union of two becoming one. Thus in a Christian's immorality there is the most gross profaning of making Christ one with that sin. Sex is not just biological. No,it is spiritual, it is two becoming one that's the way God designed it. It unites two people. That's why the Old Testament says when there are two single people, if a man lies with a woman thenhe marries her. Why? Because they've consummated a spiritual union. And that's why the Bible says that when adultery is committed, that's grounds for divorce. Why? Because they have consummated a union outside the marriage. Two becoming one is not just biological as the integrating of two people in the deepest parts of their being and that's why C.S. Lewis says, "What you have is an eternal spiritual bond, either to be eternally enjoyed or eternally endured." The Corinthians or any Christian who commits an act of sexual sin drag Jesus Christ into it.

Well, look what he says in verse 16. "What, know you not that he who is joined t a prostitute is one body?" Yes, that's right, "For two shall be on flesh." When you unite with a prostitute, you become one flesh with at prostitute in the deepest sense of communion of your beings. The sex act is not just biological, it is the uniting of two persons in the deepest most intimate sense. And when you do that with a prostitute, you've drawn a union with that prostitute. When you do it with somebody outside your marriage, you've drawn a union with that person. And if you're joined to Jesus Christ, you dragged Him right into it.

Verse 17, "He that is joined to the Lord is ... what? ... one spirit." You're one with Him. How could you ever drag Him into that? To be one with Him... The result, he says in verse 18, "Flee sexual sin." Get out of there. You know the smartest way to handle sexual sin? Just get out of there. I said you can't have a problem if you're not around. You know, Joseph was a smart guy. He got in there and Potiphar's wife started laying it on him. "Oh Joseph, you big hunk of man," and all this. And ole Joseph just realized, only one way out of this...schew ... he took of f like a shot, she grabbed his coat and that's all she got. He was gone.

You say, o, I'm going to face it and gain the victory." That's ridiculous. Get out of there. 'Well#, I must know how the world lives. Got to be aware of these things and show my strength." Just get out of there. In 2 Timothy 2:22 it says, "Flee youthful lust." Get out of there. Don't sit there and take it in, get out. If you're looking at something that isn't good, get out of there. If you're reading something that isn't good, junk it. If you're in a situation that's going the direction of compromising ... sorry...vump.., 90. You say, "Well, they won't understand." Well, who cares whether they understand? Just get out of there. Some simple solutions, aren't there? Everything isn't complicated.

Verse 18 further, "Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he that com its fornication or sex sin, sins against his own body." Now that s very difficult to understand what Paul meant because he does It really elucidate on it, But what I think he means is this, that while sexual immorality is not necessarily the worse sin, it is the cost unique in its consequences. It has a way of internally destroying a man and a woman that no other sin has. Why? Because of all sins, it is the one sin that is the spiritual union of two persons. Y u can commit other sins and those other sins may be superficial, they may affect you at some level, but the sin of a sexual intimacy with somebody else is the deepest uniting of two persons therefore it has the unique kind of sin that destroys a man at the very rootsf his being. You know, it is far more destructive than alcohol. It is far more destructive than drugs. It is far more destructive than crime. It is the deepest penetrating sin that a man can commit because it unites him to another person in the vileness of that sin.

I'll never forget seeing a girl who came to me at 16-years old and said she wanted to kill herself, she didn't want to live another day. She hadn't looked in a mirror in months because she couldn't stand her own face. I said, "Why?" She said, "Because I'm so rotten from so many acts of sexual sin." She was destroyed. She looked like she was 40-year old, just destroyed. And I'll never forget the joy that was mine in leading her to Jesus Christ. And the first thing she said to me was, "For the first time in years I feel clean." Oh, that's grace. Thank God.

All sin blackens. All sin devastates. But this sin destroys a person at the roots of his being. It harms him. It devastates him. It enslaves him and it just diametrically opposes everything God intended for the body of a Christian. It's for the Lord and it's one with Christ.

Third, your body's the temple of the Holy Spirit, verse 19. What? Know ye not...that's the sixth time he's used that formula in this chapter, common knowledge, isn't it common knowledge to you? ... that your body is the shrine, or the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have of God?" You didn't induce the Holy Spirit, you didn't earn the Holy Spirit, you didn't seek the Holy Spirit, He was given as a gift. And you aren't even your own, you're His temple. You say, "How come I'm His?" Because verse 20 says, "He bought you with a price." And what was the price? First Peter 1:18 and 19, "For you were not redeemed with gold and silver, precious stones, none of those things, but you're redeemed with the precious blood of JesusChrist as of a lamb without spot, without blemish."

What was the price He paid? His blood. Listen, He bought you. You're the shrine of the Holy Spirit. You're the temple of the living God, he says in 2 Corinthians 6:16. You're the temple of the living God, God dwells in you, how can you drag the Holy Spirit into this? I don't think there's anybody in this building who would come into this auditorium...you think of this as a place where we worship God ... I don't think there's anybody here who would come in here and commit an act of sexual sin right here in this building. You say, "Pooh, you've got to be kidding." Well, let me tell yousomething, folks, that isn't the seriousness of sex, that's no big thing. When you commit an act of sex sin and nobody's around and nobody knows, you have defiled the temple of God...this is not the temple of God, this is nothing. You are the temple of God, the living God dwells in you. You are the sacred shrine. Don't you know that? How could you desecrate? How could you mutilate? How could you defile the temple of the Spirit of God? That's...that's who you are ... the sacred shrine of the Holy Spirit.

Man, some Christians have defiled the shrine and it's pretty bad. I always think of Ralph Kyper's story about the guy that went to the cathedral and he wanted to worship at a certain shrine. And there was a sign hanging around the idol's neck, it said, "Do not worship here, this shrine is out of order." There's an awful lot of Christians that should have that sign around their neck, "Do not worship here, this shrine is out of order."

Listen, are you defiling the temple of the Holy Spirit? Are you dragging your unionwith Christ ... are you dragging Jesus Christ into a ... into a sinful situation? Are you making Him one with a prostitute? You say, 'Well, what's a prostitute?" Anybody who prostitutes the right meaning and use of sex. Are you using your body for biological expression? Forget it; your body is for the Lord. You see, it's just incongruous.

And what is the result of all this? Verse 20, he says this, "Therefore, glorify God in your ... what?...body." The rest of the verse doesn't appear in the best manuscripts. Glorify God in your body ... that's it. What should you do with yourbody? Glorify God with it, praise God with it, make it a shrine where somebody can worship.

How could you defile yourself? God will forgive you. That's right, He'll forgive you, He always does, but it will harm your you'll pay a tremendous price. And it will control you and it will pervert the design God as for you. And so I say to you like Paul said to the Ephesians, "Sex sin, let it not once be named among you."

Father, thank You for our time this morning together in the Word and dealing wit a very pertinent subject, one with which all of us struggle. Keep s pure as only You're abler in Jesus name, Amen.

To Marry or Not to Marry

We start, this morning, our study of this seventh chapter in our continuing look at I Corinthians. And we are coming to a very important and controversial chapter. We're going to be in it for a few weeks because there is much to discuss and much to learn. And as we begin this morning, we're going to find some very practical information. The book of I Corinthians, as you already know by now, is intensely practical. It doesn't get into a whole lot of theology, it sort of hits it lightly and then it dives deeply into the practical application. And this chapter is no exception.

It deals, basically, with the subject of marriage. And marriage is, let's face it, a very hot item today. There are more books being written on that subject, I think, than any other one subject. It's a discussion topic constantly. And the Bible has a lot to say about marriage. There is much in the New Testament about marriage. Our Lord Jesus taught much about marriage. He referred to marriage many times in the gospel records. He stated in Matthew 19 that man and woman were made for each other. God made them for each other. He states that they should join themselves together and become one flesh and that this was marriage and this was actually a joining, together by God Himself. Jesus also emphasized that marriage was monogamous, that it was to be two becoming one flesh, something that was first stated by God in Genesis chapter 2. Jesus also taught in Matthew 19 that marriage was to be unbroken. God hadn't changed His attitude at all about divorce.

Jesus also taught not only that it was designed by God to be monogamous, to be unbroken, but that it was only for this life. Matthew 22:30, Mark 12:25, Luke 20:35, all of those indicates that marriage is only for this earth not for heaven.

The Lord had a lot to say about marriage. But all that He said was pretty much theology, pretty much the basic identification of marriage. And He ... He didn't really get into the practical application of that. That He left for His later word through His Apostles so that when we read the epistles, we find much more information about marriage, particularly of course, the Apostle Paul who has much to say about the subject of marriage and says it repeatedly throughout his epistles, from various and sundry angles.

Now, one of the chapters in which Paul elucidates the basic truths of marriage is I Corinthians chapter 7. Here Paul takes the basic things that the Lord said, he even refers to some of the statements of the Lord, and he goes on from there to make application of those statements. There is a great gamut of things covered in the seventh chapter and we'll have to take them as they come and I'm sure when we're done, we'll have a great amount of information that will be very helpful to us. But, of course, the most important thing is not to just learn what it says but to do what it says and to make application in our lives. And, of course, that's our prayer.

Now, a footnote to begin with. Many people, unfortunately, have decided that the first thing to do with the seventh chapter of I Corinthians is just chuck it ... just get rid of it. Because there are disclaimers throughout the chapter. Paul is trying to tell us that this chapter is nothing but his opinion. And they say, you see, if you look, for example, verse 12, he says: "But to the rest speak I not the Lord." So, he wants to make it very clear to begin with that this is his opinion, not God's.

And then these folks will tell us, and verse 25 again supports this, "Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord." Sop I have nothing to say from God, I'm just going to shoot my mouth off here, take up some space. Then verse 40, "She is happier if she so abide after my judgment and I think also that I have the Spirit of God." And here we find that he doesn't know whether he's got God or not. So, they would say to us that this is a rather hopeless attempt at mixing opinion with revelation and the best thing to do is junk it. However, that's a rather ridiculous view since Paul's statements there are easily explicable if they're seen in another light.

What Paul is saying here, and I agree that there is no such assortment of sentences in any other chapter that he ever wrote, what he is saying here is very interesting. The reason that he says in verse 12: "To the rest speak I, not the Lord," is not to say that what he says is not important, but to say that what he says is new truth. It is not quoting something from the gospels that our Lord said.

Back tip to verse 10 and you'll see what I mean. "Unto the married, I command, yet not I but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband." And yousee, he quotes right out of the Lord's words in Mark 10. So, when he says it's not the Lord but myself, he is saying--I'm no longer quoting the teaching of Jesus. He is not saying it doesn't matter what I say and it's human opinion. No. He is simply saying sometimes I'm quoting Christ, sometimes I'm not. It's as if he says - quote, end quote. And really what he's doing is putting himself on an equal basis with Chris t in terms of revelation.

I've told you before; I don't like red-letter editions of the Bible because they assume that what Jesus said is more important than what anybody else said. It's all the revelation of the Spirit of God. And when Paul says the Lord said this, but I say this...he isn't saying - What I say doesn't matter. He's saying - We're on the same level, in terms of inspiration. The Spirit of God has given me these truths.

So, Paul is simply saying - If I...If I'm quoting the Lord, I'll say it. If I'm not, I'll tell you it's not a quote of the Lord's, it's some new information.

Now, let me open this up to you a little further. Our Lord, when He was talking to His disciples after He gave them the parables of the Kingdom, called the disciples scribes. The disciples were scribes in the sense that they were going to write down the revelation, weren't they? They were going to be the New Testament writers. And what He said to them was this, "Every scribe who is instructed concerning the Kingdom of heaven, is like a man who was a householder, or a house owner, who brings forth out of his treasure, things old and things new." So, He says - You're going to be scribes. Some of the things you're going to write are going to be old things; some of them are going to be new. In I Corinthians 7, you simply have an illustration of that. Paul is saying -Here's something old and here is something new. This is what the Lord said, I'm quoting. This is what I say, this is new revelation. He is not disclaiming it as revelation. Now, we'll look more at that as we go through the text.

Now, he then begins in chapter 7, to speak of the practical side of marriage. Sometimes quoting the Lord for the basic, theological principle and then going on to speak the new truth of the practical. Now in order for us to understand the context of his writing, we'd have to know something of the problems of the Corinthians. And in order for us to know the problems of the Corinthians, we'd have to know something about the time in which they lived. And there are some most fascinating things to know. Marriage was a big problem to the Corinthians. They had all kinds of problems about what to do in terms of marriage.

Verse 1, look at it: "Concerning the things about which you wrote unto me." Now, the Corinthians wrote a letter to Paul. It most likely was delivered by the people mentioned in chapter 16 verse 17, Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus who came along from Corinth. And the Corinthians had four major questions they were asking Paul. And from chapter 7 through 11, he deals with the questions they asked in the letter. Before that he speaks what he wants to and after that, chapter 12, he says - Now, I'm going back to spiritual things, back to the things that concern me. But this little block in the middle are the things they were asking him about. They had some specific questions. They wanted some information about marriage, chapter 7 deals with that. They had questions about things offered to idols, chapters 8, 9 and 10 deal with that. They had questions about women in the church, chapter 11 deals with that. And about the Lord's Table, also in chapter 11. Those four major areas were great concerns of theirs...because they were having problems with the adjustment of the life of the church in the community in relation to that. Marriage was one of the problems and that's the one he begins to deal with in chapter 7.

Now, jet me tell you a little bit about the Roman marital situation. In the first place, Rome had no uniform set of marital laws. You could get married at least four different ways, all of which were recognized as marriage in some sense. The first thing would be that there were many slaves, tens and hundreds of thousands of slaves and they didn't..., they weren't even considered human so they didn't even have any of the rights of a citizen really. And when they wanted to get married, or come together in what really was just a living together, rather than an official marriage, the owner of the slaves would agree to what was called a contuberneum, which simply means tent companionship. The owner would say - All right, you two can live in a tent together. And that consummated a certain kind of slave marriage. Now, if he didn't like the way they were doing together and he didn't particularly care for the situation, the slave owner could go in there andtake them apart. Or, he could sell off the husband or he could sell off the wife. So you had a lot of real problems in the early church because so many of the early Christians were slaves and they would have had such mixed up marital backgrounds.

Now, what is the early church going to do? Is the Apostle going to say -All right, all of you that are just tent companions, cut it out? Get out of there; it isn't fair, it's not right. The Bible doesn't say that, it doesn't say they said that. What Paul did do was not try to break up everything but to try to teach them the sanctity of the marriage that they had whatever the legal basis of it. If they were living together under a tent companionship, then he was simply saying to them - Stay together, prove yourselves true to one another, love one another, make everything of that marriage that God designed it to be. Because that's really all the choice they had as slaves.

There was another way that you could be married and another kind of relationship and this was called usus, U-S-U-S. And this particular custom meant that a woman and a man could live together f or one year. At the end of the one year, they would become identified as husband and wife. Today we would call that ... what? ... common law marriage. That was a way to be married. So, the church would have had to face people who were common law married, who had no legal paper or anything to identify their marriage and again the New Testament doesn't say anything about that they ought to do other than the sanctity of the marriage that exists under whatever it exists ... just maintain it.

There was another way, coemptioinmanum which was marriage by sale where the father sold his girl to the husband. If the guy would come across with the right price, he could have the daughter. It was somewhat facetious but that's how it worked out. And, as I've said so many times, you know, depending upon the girl, the price would vary. I suppose it could be anywhere from a couple dozen sheep to a lame chicken, but ... have a lot to do with the particular girl in mind. And maybe sometimes the father would have to make adjustments. So, there was the kind of marriage, coemptioinmanum, which was sort of a... sort of a worked-out thing financially.

But the most elevated, the most noble, the Patrician people married under the thing that was called confarreatia, a coming together on a high level. This was the classy kind of marriage. And you want to know something very interesting? The entire marriage ceremony as we know it today in the Christian church comes from this pagan Roman marriage. It does not come from Hebrew custom in the Old Testament, it does not come from a New Testament basis, it's entirely the Roman pagans ceremony. What happened was, the Roman Catholic Church simply picked up the standard Roman ceremony and when the Reformation came, nobody changed it; it had become tradition and pretty much the same today. In fact, the Hebrew wedding lasted... how long? ... normally seven days. So, you know we're not in that bag anymore. We're way far from the Hebrew customary wedding. But this one was a one-afternooner, a one-evening thing. The two families came together, they picked out a matron who would be like the maid-of-honor and a best man type thing, The couple joined their right hands, that's why we still do that in a marriage ceremony. They recited vows. And after the vows there were prayers offered, that's the standard procedure only they offered the prayers to Jupiter and Juno. There were flowers. Flowers were customary and a bridal wreath was the really the beginning of what we know today as the bridal bouquet. The bride always wore a veil which was lifted. There was a ring...and that's where the whole idea of the wedding ring began. And it was alwaysput on the same finger, this finger where I've got mine, where you've got yours because in their wonderful ability of medical science in their dissecting of the human body, they discovered that a nerve ran from the middle of this finger right to the heart. And since that nerve was connected to the heart, that's the place where the ring ought to go. That whole thing was the Romans' system of marriage. When all that was over, they wentto another place and believe it or not, they had a cake. That's right. So, now you know where the whole custom came from.

Now, ere are four different ways. They come into a church. The church is founded and people are married or sort of married or living together or whatever ... there were all kinds of problems. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Draw new laws for the Roman Empire? You can't do that. The church can't impose its laws on the Roman Empire. What Paul does, what all the New Testament writers and teachers would do, would be to simply teach the sanctity of marriage, whatever way you happen to get into it, just make the most of it now that you're there. See. That's the point.

Now, those were some of the problems they were dealing with. But add to that ... here were the real great problems...the moral character within marriage had so been destroyed that divorce was very, very rampant. There are records of people who had been married as many as 27, 28, 29 times. They counted their years by their wives. And it was a high divorce rate.

There was immorality. There was rampant homosexuality, concubinage, men used their wives to clean up the house and cook the meals and do whatever else and then they had other women for their pleasure. This was a bad situation.

On top of all of that, did you know that at the time of the Apostle Paul, in those days in the Roman Empire, there was a feminist rebellion? Nothing new has ever happened, folks. I want you to know that. Nothing new. Solomon was right, there's nothing new under the sun. And this is a quote from Jeremy Parkapino whose written an interesting book called DAILY LIFE IN ROME. It said: "Along side the heroines of the aristocracy, the irreproachable wives and the excellent mothers who were still found within its ranks, it is easy to sight emancipated or rather unbridled wives who evaded the duties of maternity for fear of losing their good looks. Some took a pride in being behind their husbands in no sphere of activity and vie with them in tests of strength which their sex would have seemed to forbid. Some were not content to live their lives by their husband's side, but carried on another life without him. Were that because of voluntary birth control or because of the impoverish stock; many Roman marriages at the end of the first and the beginning of the second centuries were childless. The movement even became more wide-spread. Juvenal, he says, this is a quote: "With spear in hand and breasts exposed, who took to pig-sticking. Others attended chariot races in men's clothing and some became wrestlers." You always wondered where women wrestlers got their start ... in ancient Rome.

Juvenal says this, again writing from the Roman viewpoint, "What modesty can you expect in a woman who wears a helmet, hates her own sex and delights in feats of strength?" end quote. Not exactly my kind of woman.

Before long, marriage began to suffer. Vows were violated. Women demanded to live their own lives. And as soon as the womenwanted out, the husbands could take about so much of that and then they were happy to let them out. And men began to discard their women as fast as women began to leave. And they would discard their women for going out without a veil, for speaking to the wrong person in public, for going somewhere or doing something without asking their permission. They would divorce a woman to get a richer one. Cicero did that. And women began to shed husbands. Juvenal writes: "Thus does she lord it over her husband, but before long she vacates her kingdom, she flits from one house to another wearing out her bridal veil," end quote.

So, you can see that the picture of marriage was a very confused thing. There was in and out of marriage, divorce was rife. There were problems with who is really married and who is not married and what about the guy who use to live in tent companionship and somebody sold off his wife, can he remarry again? They had a lot of problems about resolving everything.

Well, let me add one other problem they had. In the midst of all of this, some would suggest that the best way out is never to get married, just forget the whole thing. And they began to elevate that to the idea of celibacy, becoming a spiritually elite people. If y u weren't married and you were single and you were celibate, you're sort of a spiritual super-person. You had denied yourself the flesh. You had laid aside all of those things and totally devoted yourself to Jesus Christ. And there was a prevailing view in the Corinthian church that celibacy was the highest form of Christian life, to never get married, to have no sexual relationship at all. And it got so bad that people were not only not getting married, but condemning the people who were married. And the people who were married were leaving their partners in order to be celibate so they could be more spiritual. And people who were married to an unbeliever were getting out fast because there was supposedly defilement in being married to an unbeliever and having a sexual relationship with an unbeliever. So, the Corinthian church had a lot of problems about marriage.

Some people were banging the gavel for celibacy. And, of course) the Jews would be banging the gavel for marriage ... because they thought it was a sin not to be married. That idea of celibacy being a high level of spiritual devotion is still with us. It got into the Roman Catholic Church and it's still there. The idea that ... that a truly godly holy person can't be married is still in the Catholic Church and priests and nuns don't marry for that reason. They wear a wedding ring, very often, as a symbol of their marriage to Jesus Christ. That's a high level devotion. They say that makes them superior spiritually to the rest of us who are married. So that isn't anything that we're not familiar with. That's been around along time. And in fact, in the end times, I Timothy 4 says, people are going to come along talking about forbidding to marry, aren't they? So, the Corinthians had a lot of questions and they wrote and asked him - Help us with the problem of marriage. And so, in this middle section, he stops to help them about the subject of what to do about marriage and celibacy, etc., etc.

Now, want you to look and we'll look at the seventh chapter, I want you to look at four key ideas that appear in the first seven verses. And they deal with the whole problem of whether to be celibate or married, whether to be single or married. Some of you people are caught in the throws of this thing right now. You don't know whether to get married or not to get married. Some of you don't have any option, at this point. You're either single and haven't found anybody interested, or you're married and you're stuck. So...but some of you do have that option and you don't know whether to look for somebody to marry or whether not to. You don't know whether it's right to remarry, or whatever. So, maybe the Spirit of God will pinpoint some things that will help you.

Four key ideas, coming at the problem from the standpoint of celibacy, or being single. And you can follow along as we look. Number one, celibacy is good. Verse 1: "Now concerning the things about which you wrote unto me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman." Now we'll stop there.

Now that sounds ... if you just take that literally, it sounds a little picky. Right? I remember when I was in high school, it was advertised at this particular church group was going on a hayride and there was this one lady who was going to be the chaperon. And she was really, really a prudish person. And so, we had a hay ride with two wagons ... boys on one wagon, girls on the other wagon. I will never forget that. I mean, talk about a bummer, that's it. Right? You know, that rivals the school I heard about where the basketball team wore long pants, you know. I mean, you can just take things a little too far. But this was the situation. And her justification, I'll never forget, we got this little talk about I Corinthians 7:1. If you were there, you might be bumping, touching. It's good for a man not to touch a woman. Well, folks, if you take that as a blanket literal statement, Adam and Eve would have been the last people that ever lived on the face of the earth. That's not the point. It's not talking about that. The concept - touching a woman - is a euphemism for sexual intercourse, that's what it means. That is its significance. And I can show that to you very simply from several Old Testament passages.

The first one is Genesis 20 verse 6. And here was a potential case where adultery could have been committed in the family of Abraham. But in verse 6, "God said unto him in a dream, Yea I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart for I also withheld thee from sinning against Me, therefore allowed I thee not to touch her." To touch her means to have a physical relationship.

In Ruth, chapter 2, Ruth and Boaz. Boaz had that desire to keep Ruth pure. "Let thine eyes be on the field," Ruth 2:9, "that they do reap and go thou after them. Have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee?"

In Proverbs, I'll give you one more, 6:29, "So he that goeth into his neighbor's wife, whosoever touches her shall not be innocent." And of course, you know it isn't talking about a tap on the shoulder, it's talking about a relationship, physical, sexual, that's the idea.

So, verse 1 is saying it is good not to have a sexual relationship. And he's simply saying it is good to be single. It is good for a man not to be married. It is good.

Now you say - Whoa, John, how can you... That's what it says in the Bible. Now, notice something, folks, before you all panic. He does not say it's the only good. It is also good to be married. He is simply saying it isn't evil to be single. You know, that's a problem today because so many people think if you're not married, something's wrong with you. Well, she's not married; I wonder where the quirks are. There's got to be something wrong. There must be some skeletons in the closet, see. We have those little innuendos, and inferences. We say - Poor fella, must have some abnormalities. See. Can't find anybody in this whole world that will take you on, you're in bad shape ... bad shape.

But he says - Look, it is a good thing not to be married. He's already talked about the sexual immorality thing in chapter 6, that's not what he's talking about. Here he's talking about marriage. Now he doesn't say it's... it's bad to get married and he doesn't say it's better to be single, he just says it's kalos, it's profitable, it's beneficial, it's good to be unmarried, nothing wrong with that at all. It's very good. He's not using comparatives, he's stating a fact. Now the reason it's so urgent that he say this is because of the Jews in the church. The Jews, you see, use to teach that if you didn't have a wife, you were a sinner. They said this: A man who does not have a wife and a child has slain his posterity and lessened the image of God in the world. Seven kinds of people couldn't get to heaven, they had a list. Number one on the list, a Jew who has no wife. Number two, a wife who has no children.

The Jew said - God said be fruitful and multiply and if you don't you're disobedient-to the commands of God. Now, no doubt, this pressure was coming on the Corinthian church from the Jewish members. They were saying - You've got to be married. And the Gentiles who didn't want to get into the big mish-mash of marriage and who wanted to get some higher devotional level to God were saying - Forget it, man, we're going to be celibate and we're going to strictly remove ourselves from marriage and live a... a life totally given over to God. And Paul is starting out by saying -It's good to be single. It's fine. Nothing wrong with that at all.

You say - Well, what about the Old Testament, it says it's not good for man to be alone? Well, you can be single and still not be alone. You can have friends. Psalm 68:6 says: "God sets the solitary in families." Maybe your family is Grace Church. Maybe your family is somebody else's family. Maybe your family is your friends, but God will give you somebody to fulfill the need for other friends. But it's good to be single. If you're single, it's good. It's not bad, it's not evil, it's not wrong, it's good.

But, point 2, celibacy is not only good, it's tempting. And this is usually the complaint of single people. Yeah, I understand that it's good; it's just really hard ... to be single. Very difficult. Verse 2, "Nevertheless, even though it's good, on account of immoralities, let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband." Now notice the command - Let every woman have her own husband, let every man have his own wife. Those are commands. He says - Everybody get married. It's good to be single but everybody get married. Why? On account of what? Immorality. Listen, being single is good, but it's tempting. It's tempting. And the gross style of Corinthian life made it harder for the unmarried to be pure, just like it does in our day.

You know, so many unmarried people have problems today because of, the constant barrage of sexual temptation being thrown at them. Now, he's not saying that marriage is the absolute demand for everybody; he is saying the norm is everybody gets married because it is normal to have physical desire. And I'll show you how this works in a minute.

You say - Well, Paul's sure got a rotten view of marriage, marriage is just so you don't get in trouble. And if you've got a lot of desire, find anybody just so you don't get into trouble. Just get anybody to marry you...is that what he's saying?

No. He is simply answering one problem. He is simply answering the argument that everybody should be single by saying everybody can't be single or you're going to get into immorality because the desire is too strong. The norm is everybody has his own wife, notice the word own prohibits polygamy, and every woman have her own husband. That's God's design.

Now, you say But is that the only reason to get married? No. I've got six reasons to get married, the Bible gives, six biblical reasons for marriage, all start with a P. Ready?

Number one, procreation. Genesis 1:28 says to be fruitful and multiply and you're suppose to have children. That's one reason to get married, to have children. And that's a good reason to get married. God wants to reproduce, especially godly people.

Secondly, pleasure ... another reason to get married is pleasure. Did you know that God designed marriage just for physical pleasure? Just to enjoy. Hebrews 13:4, the bed is undefiled. In other words, it's an enjoyable experience. Marriage is honorable. Marriage is enjoyable. Proverbs 5 talks about the satisfaction that a husband finds in the physical body of his wife and vice versa. The Song of Solomon from beginning to end, all it is is physical satisfaction, isn't it? Pleasure ... and you read in the Bible about one of the Old Testament patriarchs sporting with his wife ... I always liked that. And...and that's part of it. That's part of the marriage situation, pleasure. So, procreation, pleasure...

Thirdly, marriage is provision. Another reason for marriage is provision. God wants a man to provide what a woman needs. The woman, says Peter in I Peter 3, is the weaker vessel and God knows that a man can support the weakness of a woman. God wants the man to provide for the woman, to nourish her, Ephesians 5 says, to cherish her, to strengthen her, to give her something to lean on, to fortify her. So, it's procreation, it's pleasure, it's provision.

It's also partnership. Marriage is for partnership. In the Old Testament, God says - You need a helpmeet, right? You need a helper. You don't need to do things alone, you need a helper. And so it is for partnership. God gives us a friend. And I think, really, the key ingredient in a marriage is friendship ... a partner.

Fourth, marriage is a picture. Marriage is given as a picture. Ephesians 5 says it is a symbol to the world of God's relationship to His church.

And lastly, marriage is for purity, to keep us from committing fornication. So, marriage is for procreation, pleasure, provision, partnership, picture and purity. Those are the reasons the Bible gives and Paul isn't only simplifying everything to this, he's just dealing with one aspect.

So, we are to get married then because if we don't, we're going to put ourselves in a terrible place of temptation But that doesn't mean that you run out without really considering what you're doing and marry the first available person just so you don't get in trouble. You'll be in more trouble then than you ever thought you were in. But that's just one of the reasons. Don't just marry for the sake of purity if you're not also marrying for the sake of pleasure if you're not also marrying for the sake of the picture of Christ and His church and you're intending on nourishing and cherishing her, etc., etc. So, marriage is the norm. Celibacy is good but, let's face it, celibacy is also tempting.

Third point, celibacy is wrong for married people. You say, Well, that's obvious. Well, I don't know how obvious it was to the Corinthians; Paul had to spend three verses clearing it up. Verse 3, let me give you the background. Now what happens is, here's these Corinthians, they get saved and immediately they say - Well, in order for us to be totally set apart unto God, we're going to stop all of our physical relationships. Some overzealous husband decides he's going to give all of his devotion to God and says I'm not going to do anything physical with you anymore, dear. Or, some overzealous wife says - I'm now totally committed to Jesus Christ; I can't have anything to do with you, especially since you're not a Christian. I don't want a thing to do with you physically.

And that's what was happening in Corinth. So, how you going to deal with it? Verse 3: "Let the husband render to the wife," the translation is - the debt. Let the husband render unto the wife the debt, and likewise also, the wife unto the husband. Look, you have an obligation in your marriage to give to one another what you owe one another. This is a debt. You are a debtor, men, to your wife. Ladies, you are a debtor to your husband. Even if he's a non-Christian, you owe him a debt. Marriage has its obligations, friends, you are to pay your debts to one another, fulfilling your duty to one another, pay what you owe. Present imperative in the Greek, continuously rendering to the wife the debt, and likewise, the wife continuously rendering to the husband the debt. And what is the debt? I think he's talking about physical, sexual relationships. What he's saying is - Look, now that you're a Christian doesn't change that, you continue in marriage to fulfill the sexual desires of each other. I believe that's what he's talking about here simply because that's the context that immediately follows, and I'll show it to you in a minute.

See, God made the physical a great part of marriage. I know there are some Christian people who even in their marriage are very prudish and... and I don't want to shock you, I just want to show you what the Bible says. But in marriage, your union physically can be expressed in any way that you want. This is God's design for the fulfillment of pleasure. The Bible glorifies it. In fact, the book of Song of Solomon has a whole book written just on the physical part of marriage. What it says in there, "Love, says Solomon, "becomes a most vehement flame as passionate and hungry as the sea." The Song of Solomon gives us magnificent lyrics in praise of the physical desire of marriage. Listen, this is what the man says: "Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your lips are like a scarlet thread and your mouth is lovely. You are all fair, my love, and there is no flaw in you." Wouldn't you like to hear that, ladies? Wow. Could you say that again for a recording???

And then he says: "You have ravished my heart." This guy is sick with love, see. You've ravished my heart. She is equally thrilled: "My beloved is radiant and ruddy. He is fairer than ten thousand." She cries: "I am my beloved's, my beloved is mine. His desire is toward me." Then the coup de grace, she says: "I am sick with love." That's talking about physical, I mean, she is really excited...about this guy. And he about her, but that's how it ought to be. God designed marriage to be the physical expression of love. He honors the sexual desire of marriage.

So, Paul is saying - Look, you have an obligation to one another, to fulfill the physical desire and the physical love and the physical need that each other has. Mutual sexual love in marriage is God's design and it's your duty to one another. It's a vehicle for the expression of that love. And you know, the very act of sex itself strengthens that love.

Babage says in an interesting book SEX AND SANITY, "From one point of view it may be spoken of as a safety valve for irresistible desire, but for the Christian man, the sexual life is infinitely more than that. It is a breath-taking experience. As Bart says, 'A bold and blessed intoxication.' Intercourse is not only the appropriate means for the expression of love, it is also the means by which love itself is strengthened and sustained. Sexual intercourse is far more than a physical act." And he's right.

So, Paul says - Pay your debt to one another, verse 4, here he explains it further. "The wife hath not Dower of her own body, but the husband and likewise also, the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife." Now, two imperatives in the proceeding verses are followed by two indicatives here that state facts. Pay your dues to one another. Why? Because you have released the authority over your body to your partner. Look at verse4, "The wife has not exousia, authority, over her own body, but the husband." Ladies, your body belongs to him. Men, your body belongs to her. That's right ... for whatever particular expression she has in mind or you have in mind, that sharing is the thing that God designed. And it's a present tense, incidentally, here, lifelong. The wife continually lifelong does not have authority over her own body. So, when you say to your wife - Dear, your mine. And she says to you -Honey, you're mine. That is the truest thing in the purest sense that you could say, right out of the Word of God. And you can quote this verse to each other in its fullness and know that God supports that desire that you have for one another.

Now, in a simple sense, the wife's body is her own as God has given it to her. In a spiritual sense, it is the Lord's according to Romans 12:1, "Present your body ... " but in the marital sense, the body belongs to the partner. And the same is true of the man. A beautiful way to express the sharing of marriage.

Go back to Hosea, and we've talked about Hosea before. You remember, he married this girl. God told him to marry her. Her name was Gomer. And... I've always thought that ... she turned out, of course, to be a prostitute and with a name like that ... who could wonder? But, he wanted to tell her how he felt so at the very beginning, in chapter 3 of Hosea; he talks to his wife and verse 3, he says this: "I said unto her, Gomer, thou shalt abide for me many days," Hosea 3:3, "Thou shalt abide for me many days." You're going to be around for a long time, dear. "Thou shalt not play the harlot. No more do you need to wander in sin. Thou shalt not be for another man." Listen, "So will I also be for thee." You will be for me and I will be for you... and he had it, didn't he? That's marriage. The physical - I am for you and you are for me. If you need me, then I'm yours. And if I need you, then you are mine. That's it.

Don't break up your marriage because you became a Christian. There isn't any high level sanctity to celibacy. It's good to be single, but listen; it's great to be married, if that's what God's given you. Don't violate that. He's given you the gravy, man, if you're married. Peter calls it the grace of life. What he means, it's the whip cream on the sundae, it's the gravy, it's the grace of life. Life is great and life is abundant and life abounds for the Christian, but the gravy is to get married. It's exciting.

Marriage, then, is a permanent surrender of everything I am to my partner. I am hers in absolutely the fullest and truest sense.

Now, he goes a step further and he makes an application, verse 5. "Stop depriving one the other." Now, here were these people depriving each other of the physical relationship. Well, I'm sorry, dear, now that we belong to the Lord, we mustn't do that. No...no. Stop doing that. " ... Except it be With consent for a time that you may give yourselves to prayer and come together again that Satan tempt you not for your lack of self-control."

Now, he says - Look, there may be times when you agree not to have physical relationships because you want to pray, you have decided to pray. That's the exception, he says. Now, I want to give you some guidelines, are you ready? Here they come. If you're going to not enter into sexual activity, physical activity, here are the guidelines. Number one, except it be with consent ... you have to have a mutual agreement. The word with consent is the Greek word that is the source of our word symphony. Unless your hearts are in symphony ... abstention is involuntary on the part of one, then forget it because if you force withdrawal, if you force an abstention from the physical, that's robbing the partner, unless there's mutual consent.

And notice this: "...for a time." Not for a long time, but a set time, not indefinitely but a prescribed time. We are going to pray for this next five days, dear, and we're going to agree to this because God has laid on our hearts a burden, we're going to give ourselves to that ... that's a time. Notice, and it is to be prayer. Fasting is not in the better manuscripts. It's not...that could be a part of the prayer time, but it doesn't seem to be in the earlier manuscripts. You give yourselves to prayer. Now, this should be mutual agreement, it isn't, you know, when your wife whispers sweet nothings in your ear and you say - Don't bother me, I'm praying. That isn't the idea. The idea is when you have agreed to pray about a specific thing. There's a definite article in the Greek, the prayer indicating there was a definite and specific continuous kind of burden.

And what may happen in your life ... and maybe you've experienced this, probably all of us have ... is that there comes into your life a great spiritual reality, a great spiritual struggle, or a...something that you recognize as a tremendous need. And you lose the desire and the craving for the physical and you become lost in the struggle of the spiritual in seeking out the will and the revelation of God's plan and that becomes the consuming thing. That may happen. There may be times in your life when you fall into sin and you go through a time of purification and your heart needs to be given over 'totally to the Lord. If that's the case then you need to withdraw from the physical relationship for a while. This was done in history. Exodus 19:15, for one place. The Mosaic covenant had been given. God wanted the children of Israel to straighten their hearts out and get right with Him. So, He said - Come not near your wives, Exodus 19:15. Separate yourselves physically for a time. It talks about three days. For a time of purification and concentration on the things of the Lord.

In Joel, chapter 2, the Assyrians were threatening to destroy Israel and God says - You better get squared away, Israel, or you're really going to be in trouble. You better concentrate on spiritual things. Verse 12 of Joel 2, "Turn," He says, "to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, mourning, tear your heart, not your garments." Let it be real. He says in verse 16, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and those that nurse at the breasts, let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber and the bride out of her room." Separate even the bridegroom and the bride from their wedding chamber for a time of spiritual struggle and concentration. So, there may be those times.

In Zechariah, the future, when our Lord comes in the great day, when He arrives in the world and the Jews realize who they have slain in the past, it says in Zechariah 12:10, God is going to pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication, they'll look on Me whom they have pierced and they'll mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son ... etc., etc. And it says: "Let," verse 12, it says: "Let every family be apart, the family of the house of David apart, their wives apart, the family of Nathan apart, the family of Levi, of Shimei, all the families that remain, every family apart and their wives apart." In that great time of mourning and spiritual concentration, separation.

So, there may be times ... mutual consent, for prayer, a greater desire, for spiritual things takes over and that physical falls away. But, notice the end of verse 5: "...and then come together again." Let it be only for that time of prayer, temporary. Why? Simply because of this: "That Satan tempt you not for your lack of self-control." Listen, you know, there are people who use the sexual aspect of marriage, I mean, so many do, to manipulate what they want. Well, you know, if the husband doesn't do everything the wife wants ... that's it, man, you know, he's on the couch. Or, if the wife doesn't do everything the husband wants, he couldn't care less, he doesn't even bother with her. And the husband knows just exactly what he has to do to get the right response, so he does it.. it's like, sort of like a poor little puppy dog who has to do what he has to do in order to get what he has to get.

Listen, when you withhold from your partner for any reason, you put that partner in a place where Satan will tempt him toward their lack of self-control. The first thing that happens is, not only the bitterness and the anguish and anxiety that comes between the two, but then the evil thought that comes into the mind and then the entertainment of the evil thought and very often it can lead to an adulterous situation. Anytime you withhold from your partner that which is rightfully theirs, you become the agent of Satan. Now, you say you love your wife, men? Women, you sayyou love your husband? Then don't ever put your husband or wife in a situation where they are open to the temptation of Satan simply because you're selfish. It isn't right.

Now, this is practical stuff. This gets right down to where we live...right where we're at. That's the way the Word of God is.

If I say I love my wife, if you say you love your husband, if that's really true, then you would never willfully, openly put that person in place where Satan begins to tempt them to carnality. Sometimes, you know, we deal with people in the church and friends, and we wonder why it has...they have so much trouble walking in the Spirit. Why they're always carnal. And maybe the reason is because they are so frustrated physically in their own marriage that they're constantly being bombarded with thoughts of this. That's not fair. You're not only robbing that person, you're putting them in a place of temptation and you become an agent of Satan.

Celibacy is good. It's a good thing to be single, but it's tempting. And thirdly, it doesn't belong for married people. Fourth, and this sums it, celibacy is a gift. It is a gift, definitely. And some have it and some don't. And the ones who don't find it very frustrating. Notice verse 6: "But I speak this by permission and not by commandment." Now you say - What is that', mean? Well, probably the word permission is not a good translation. The word in the Greek means in its verb form - to think the same as someone. To think the same as someone. In extrabiblical writings, for example, in II Maccabees 14:31, the same word is translated - aware. It means awareness. Paul is saying - I'm saying what I'm saying because I am aware of your human needs, not as a commandment. In other words, when I said - Let everybody get married - I don't mean that I am commanding you all to get married, I'm simply laying this out as the norm because I'm aware of your human needs. Look, he says, don't you people be celibate; celibacy is a good thing but get married. And when you get married, fulfill your marriage. And I'm not commanding that you have to get married but because I am aware of your needs, I'm suggesting this is the best thing. And the only reason you shouldnot get married and fulfill that is verse 7, "I would that all men were even as I myself, but every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, another after that." Let's face it, he says, I wish you could all be like me and not have to be married. But this is a gift, I happen to have it, you may not.

Now, here's a beautiful thought, people. While marriage is not a command, it is stressed as the norm because of the problem of staying pure. And within marriage the physical should be continually dealt with and fulfilled in order to keep that purity. It is best to be married. But there are some, he says, like me and I wish there were more, who don't have to be married because they have a special gift of God. Next time you see a single person, don't assume in your mind that there's something warped about them. Don't assume - Poor soul, must have bad breath, or socially unacceptable personality traits, don't assume that. You might assume, first of all, that maybe they have a charisma of God. That they are a uniquely prepared and designed human being, gifted with the Holy Spirit and gifted by the Holy Spirit for singleness. Now, I have a gift...several spiritual gifts, so do you. Well, here is another spiritual gift that perhaps could be added to the list in a little different sense and that is the gift of being single. Paul says - Sure it's the norm to marry; I wish you could all be like me.

You say - Well, Paul, why would we want to be like you? Man alive, I couldn't stand being single. That's because you don't have the gift. What is the gift, Paul? It's the gift to be single and not be consumed by lust, you see? It isn't...the gift isn't just being single, that isn't a gift to some people, that is torture. The gift is being single and loving it. The gift is being single and not being tempted. The gift is being single and not being pre-occupied with not being single. That's the gift. And Paul says - Hey, I'm not married and I don't need marriage. Now, maybe he was once in his life, but he isn't now. God, since he was saved, gave him the gift of celibacy, the gift to be single and never need a woman.

You say I can't imagine it. No, because if you don't have the gift, you can't imagine it. I can't imagine it. You know, but I've often thought to myself...I love my wife, you know, totally and completely, and my kids and I wouldn't have it any other way, but you know, I can understand what Paul says when he says - I wish you could be single. There are some things in the ministry that a single man could really do that a married man can't. Look at verse 32 of the seventh chapter. "I would have you without care." I mean, wouldn't it be neat if you didn't have any care, if he that is unmarried cares only for the things of the Lord, but verse 33, "If you're married, you care for the things that are of the world." What? How you please your wife. Well, that gets right down to it. You know, if you're married, let's face it, you've got certain things you have to care about, you've got to prepare and you've got to take care of, and you've got to give time to your kids and time to your wife, and ... man, if you're single, sometimes I think - Wouldn't it be amazing, you'd just move and just be free. God has given some people this marvelous, marvelous gift.

I'll never forget meeting missionaries. I always think of Rachel Saint when I think about this, running around down there in the jungle from one Indian tribe to the next, totally alone without any need for marriage, the gift of celibacy, her life is absolutely fulfilled and pouring herself into these people. And there are people like that around the world. What a unique and blessed gift. And it comes from God. But not everybody has it. So, Paul says to the Corinthians, - Look, some people be single, if you have a gift of God for it. And you can be single and not be preoccupied with sex. But the norm is be married and stay married.

Jesus even said the same thing,, Jesus talked about the fact that being single is a good thing. He didn't disparage it. In Matthew 19, listen to this, He says - There are some eunuchs who were so born from their mother's womb. And there are some eunuchs made eunuchs by men and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake, that is people who have decided not to marry so they can serve the Lord. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. I mean, if you're able, Jesus said, and Paul further defines it as a gift of the Holy Spirit.

You know, to be single means you can do certain things that you otherwise couldn't do. And God needs single people. Thank God if you're single and have no desire for marriage. That's a gift of God. Use it. If you're married, you've got the gravy on life, live it up, enjoy it. One as one, one as another.

So, he says to the Corinthian church Listen, every man has his gift, most Of you be married, stay married, and fulfill the physical part of marriage. Don't abstain from each other except for a brief time of prayer. You that are single, if it's single and without desire for fulfillment in marriage, single and totally given over to the Lord and loving it, then thank God for the beautiful gift that He's given. So, he lays the principle. Celibacy is good, marriage is good, it just depends on which God designs for you.

Now, we'll see how he applies it beginning in verse 8, next week. Let's pray.

Father, thank You for giving us such practical help. Thank You for taking what's a delicate matter that some people would maybe not want to talk about or face and putting it right in the Word of God where we all have to face it. I thank You, Father, for blessing our church with moms and dads, with married couples who are so useful to You and set patterns for our ... our whole church family, for our younger people, for their own children, who bring up children in the things that You've designed, who raise new spiritual seed. I praise You for them. And then I thank You, God, for single people. People You've given the gift of celibacy to, the gift of being single and not being preoccupied with not being single but loving their ability to be free and serving You. Bless them, Father, fulfill them, give them that family that You promised to give the solitary. And, Father, I pray, too, for those who are still single but have not the gift of celibacy, who are looking for I that one that can fulfill their life. God, help them to have wisdom, help them to choose with a mind of the Spirit and fulfill their life with that perfect partner that You've designed for them... that we might be fulfilled in that relationship so vital to the usefulness that we might have in Your kingdom, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Divine Guidelines for Marriage

This morning, we're continuing our look at I Corinthians chapter 7 and we'll look at verses 8 through 16, this morning, discussing divine guidelines for marriage ... divine guidelines for marriage ... I Corinthians 7:8 to 16. And we are continuing in our study of I Corinthians.

You know, it's difficult in our world, I think, to maintain a marriage ... to maintain any kind of a lasting relationship. Fifteen million Americans, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau statistic, have gone through a divorce. People find it extremely difficult to build lasting relationships with any kind of meaning at all. One divorce for every 2.56 marriages now in American and it's rising. Interestingly enough, the highest divorce rate in the world is in Russia. Russian cities have a three out of four divorce rate. Also, I was interested to read some-where that the number one song in Russia in 1974 was "Love Story." We talk a lot about it even here in America, but find it very difficult to maintain any kind of love relationship.

And unfortunately, what we experience is not a historical phenomenon that is new; it's something that has always been around. And if you go to I Corinthians chapter 7, you'll find that there was a terrible problem existing in Corinth and it dealt with the whole area of marriage. And that is the problem to which Paul speaks in the seventh chapter. The Corinthians didn't really know what they should do in terms of marriage, or at least they weren't willing to admit what they should do, and posed some questions to Paul about it. The first verse of chapter 7 says that ... "you wrote unto me concerning these issues," and he proceeds to answer them.

Like every other area of their lives, the Corinthians had managed to botch up the area of marriage. They had fouled up everything else; there was no reason to believe that they would make it in this area. And so Paul writes chapter 7 to deal with their misconceptions and misbehaviors in terms of marriage. They were confused over whether it was right to be single and whether necessary to be single, if you're going to be spiritual, or whether it was right to be married and necessary to be married if you were going to be spiritual. The Jews in the congregation, because it was an orthodox Jewish belief, would have propagated the fact that you had to be married. And if you weren't married you were out of God's will and you were to be excluded from heaven.

On the other hand, there were many people who had a rather growing fascination with celibacy and they were more concerned with remaining single as a spiritual value. In other words, if they were single, they would be able to give to God a higher devotion, they would move to a higher plain of spiritual life if they weren't married and there were some who would go as far as to say that sex of any kind was a ... was, if nothing else, certainly a misdirection of effort and could well be channeled in the area of service to God rather than attachment to a wife or a husband. Some were saying the truly devoted Christian wouldn't marry at all.

Well, this carried so far that truly devoted people who were Christians were saying - We ought to get a divorce in order that we might better serve the Lord, we'll split up. Or, if they wanted to stay together, - We will withdraw ourselves from all physical relationship, no more sexual relations in our marriage, we'll just devote ourselves to God and not get dragged into those physical things. So all kinds of problems and confusion ruled the marital scene in Corinth... and they wrote Paul asking for answers.

Basically, the questions were these: Is marriage a command? Do you have to be married to please God? Should single people, then, marry or is it more spiritual to stay single? And are you a more devoted Christian if you're not married?

Another question that came out of this is - Should marry people who become Christians then abstain from all sexual relationship? And should a Christian married to a non-Christian divorce that non-Christian in order not to have a mixed marriage and unite Christ with a pagan?

These were the questions. And the seventh chapter really clearly answers these questions.

Now, last time we looked at verses I to 7 and we saw in verses 1 to 7 general principle regarding marriage. And what Paul said, by a way of brief summary, is this - Marriage is normal, marriage is for marriage the majority. God has made us to marry Marriage is good bit is not an absolute commandment for everybody ... because God has, according to verse 7, given some people the charisma or the gift of being single, the ability by the Holy Spirit to totally control sexual desire. And if that's what God's gifted you with, then you're singleness is a unique gift of God and ought to be used for His glory. So, marriage is the norm, it isn't commanded, it isn't an absolute, but it is the norm to avoid fornication, sexual involvement. You should get married. But for some who have the gift of being single, that's a special blessing of God and it should be maintained because it puts you in a position to be used by Him in a very unique way.

So, there is the general principle. Marriage is normal. Singleness is the exception; it's a gift of God. If you have it then it's something you ought to hold to and cherish as a special gift from God.

Now, he takes that principle, in verses 8 to 16, and applies it to four groups ... four groups. First group is the single people. Second group is the people who are married and both are Christians. Third group, those married to an unbeliever who wants to stay. Fourth group, those married to an unbeliever who wants out. Four groups, and every one of you here is in one of those groups.

Let's look at group one and see how he applies the principle. Those who are unmarried and widows, verse 8: "1 say therefore," that is, therefore meaning on the basis of the principle laid down, "I say therefore to the unmarried," and that is a general term including bachelors, maidens, divorcees, "I say to the unmarried and especially to the widows," because, of course, they had a unique situation, having been married and knowing all of the joys of marriage and having been separated not because they wish to be, like a divorcee, but because of death and the trauma that that brings, "I say then to the unmarried and especially to widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I." It's good to be single. If you're a bachelor, that's good. If you're a maiden whose never been married, that's good. If you're a widow or a widower, that's good. There's nothing wrong with that. And good means beneficial, excellent and just good. It isn't wrong. Don't listen to those orthodox Jews who are saying if you're not married, you're abnormal. And you know, we tend to fall into that category. We find some poor young person whose about 28 and we want to play Cupid all the time. You've got to get married ... you can't just go through life... you've got to start looking. We want to push these people into getting married. Don't do that. God may have given them the gift of celibacy, and if so, then maybe being married is in violation of God's very best for their life.

There are some things in this world that single people are needed to do. It's all right if you've got somebody who's saying - I've got to get married. You can help them. But if somebody just ... and they need help, see. But, but if you have somebody who has no interest in that and they feel that God has given them the gift of being able to control sexual desire outside of marriage, then let it be that way and God will fulfill them in a very unique way. He simply says here; It is a good thing for them if they abide even as I. And, of course, at this time Paul was single. He may have been married, since marriage appears to be a necessity for a member of the Sanhedrin, which he once was. It is, however., likely that his wife died before he was converted and his time of ministry for Christ was always as a single individual, as best we can tell. And so, once he had been widowed, if that is the case indeed, then he maintained that because God gave him that gift, that charisma of celibacy, that ability to be single and not to be preoccupied with sex and marriage. So, it's a good thing.

Look at verse 25, Paul further talks about this and we'll get into this in detail in later weeks. "Now concerning virgins," or unmarried people, "I have no commandment of the Lord." The Lord never said anything about the unmarried, never told anybody to get married. He just spoke about the marriage as it already existed. No commandment ... "..yet, I'm going to give my judgment as one that obtained mercy of the Lord." Now, I'm going to add some revelation to this. "I suppose therefore that this good for the present distress, I say, it is good for a man so to be. Are you bound to a wife? Don't seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Don't seek a wife."

In other words, I guess he would... from just a practical standpoint, in the world you live in, the sexually, messed-up world of Corinth, it might just be to your advantage to stay the way you are. If you're single, then just stay that way. If you're married, stay that way ... for sure. But verse 28 says, "If you marry, you haven't sinned. If a virgin marries, she hasn't,"....it's no sin to get married, but it might be to your advantage to stay single. "Nevertheless, such shall have trouble in the flesh but I spare you." I'd like to spare you the trouble that marriage brings, and it does bring trouble. Don't make a big issue out of marriage if it isn't a necessity for you. It's all right, you won't sin, but if God has given you the ability to be single, cherish that ability because of its lack of encumbrance, you have a special way in which you can serve God. That's kind of an exciting thing. This is a very special gift...that renders you capable of serving God in a very unique way.

Now, realize that there are pressures in being single, especially of all the current emphasis on marriage and the family and you kind of feel like a fifth wheel, and I was reading in the Times where they say that at the holiday season, it's worse than ever. Single people, particularly single parents, feel really left out. There's no need to feel that way. If God has given you the gift of celibacy, if God has allowed you to be single for the time, accept that as His plan. There's nothing wrong with being single. Paul advocates it.

You know, Jesus had a conversation with the disciples; I ought to show it to you, Matthew 19, in which they concluded that it would probably be better to be single. In Matthew 19, Jesus is talking about marriage and He's giving all the things about marriage and how that you're not to put your wife away except for fornication and so forth. And after He got done with all this speech, and the Lord really laid down some string guidelines for marriage, verse 10, Matthew 19, "His disciples say unto Him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry." In other words, man, with all of that going on, it would be better never to get married to begin with. "Yes, Jesus said. But all men can't receive this saying except they to whom it is given." And here the Lord indicated that it would be fine if everybody stayed single, but everybody can't handle that. And He gives us the introduction into the concept of the charisma of verse 7 of I Corinthians 7, that you have to have a special gift to be single, and not be preoccupied with sex.

Now, being single opens up all kinds of potential for you... to serve the Lord. We should never take somebody who is content with being single and force them into a situation where they think they're not fulfilled and they have to get married. It isn't true.

"If you're unmarried or widowed, it's a good thing and you can stay that way." That's fine, you don't have to get married, but...verse9...."If they can't have self-control, let them marry for it's better to marry than toburn." If you can't handle being single, get married. Now, we're talking about Christians. Some of you may say -Well, I don't have that gift, but I can't seem to get married. And the truth of the matter may be that you have sinned in the past, you have violated the principles of God, so you're not in a position now where God is going to bless you with marriage or maybe you've disqualified yourself by former marriages in sin and so forth and so on. But just taking it from point blank zero, let's say you're just a new Christian, or you're starting out, here is God's standard, it is good, if God's given you the gift but if not then marry. And I believe that assumes that God will provide a partner. How could God command you to marry and not provide a partner? But, listen to me, people, if you're not the right person, you'll never meet the right partner. That's the whole key. If you're not the right person, you'll never meet the right partner. So instead of looking for the right girl, start being the right man. And, girls, instead of looking for theright man, start being the right woman...and then the right man will recognize the right woman.

And so, let them marry. Now that's an aorist imperative command Get married! It's better to marry than to burn. If you're going around just flaming on the inside with desire then get married! It's ... there's no point in saying - Well, I'm remaining single for the cause of Christ ... vroom, room, you see. That is...you know...that's ridiculous. There's no value in that at all. If you're burning with sexual desire, present tense continues, you continue to burn then please get married. Marriage, for one thing, will bring about the fulfillment of that physical desire. You know, it never ceases to amaze me, some couple will come to me and they'll s ay - John, we just got engaged. You know, and they're real excited and kind of funny looking face, you know how youget when you get engaged, sort of happy but apprehensive. And show you the ring and - Well, when you going to get married? Oh, we're going to get married in two years. Two years? You know, I hear that. Or, or a year...we have to wait till we get some money or this...Listen, it is better to marry than to burn. And if you're going to go through two years Uhhh, like this, there is no point in it. You know, I tell them Don't wait two years, get married in two months. Once you've made that commitment, you put yourself in a position to be tempted and to see your spiritual life just fade away. Once you've made that vow, get married. Marriage is to help you in that area. There is no advantage in long engagements.

Listen, parents, when your kids come home and say they're engaged, you tell them to get married. Get married fast. Well, no.... we want you to wait and finish your four years of college and.... oh, see. You know, what you do for the time they're engaged? You destroy their spiritual life...because they can't control the desire because the commitment is already there, see? Paul is saying it's fine to be single and if you have the gift of celibacy, don't let anybody push you into getting married. But if you decide to get married, let everybody push you into it. Get it going, get married. Your singleness is excellent.

You say - Well you know, I don't have the gift but I'm just waiting for the right partner, what do I do? How do I control my desire in the meantime? Well, that's a fair question and we're not really approaching that problem, this morning, well, let me just give you just some hints that I thought of. How can I as a single person who is waiting for the fulfillment of my physical desire, waiting for the right mate, how can I control myself? Well, here are some thoughts that you can expand on. Number one would be channel your energy through physical work and spiritual service. Redirect yourself to good physical work and spiritual service. This gives your energy an outlet.

Secondly, don't seek to be married, seek to love and let marriage come as a response. People who are always wanting to get married will marry the wrong person more often than not. But people who are seeking to find the fulfillment of love will marry the person they've fallen in love with. Don't seek to get married. You know, that's when you go out and you go home and immediately you take out your notes ... let see, A on this, and B on this one, and C on thi... you check them off, see. Well, he's close enough, I'll take him if he asks, see. Well, what you're doing, you see, is you're letting marriage be the issue rather than the right person becoming the issue. Seek to be loved and to love, not to be married. Don't worry; marriage will take care of itself.

Thirdly, let go of a sex-mad adulterous world. And what I mean by that is watch what you absorb of the system.

Fourthly, program your mind with divine realities ... program your mind. It's amazing, but your behavior is a direct result of the programming of your mind with divine truth.

Fifth, recognize that for now God has chosen for you to live without sex and recognize this, there's no temptation that has taken you but such is as common to man, God is faithful, will not allow you to be tempted...what? ... above that you're able but will with the temptation make ... what?...a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.

Sixth, avoid potentially dangerous situations. That's like Joseph, he just ran.

Seventh, thank and praise God for the state you're in and be content. You have to approach it from these standpoints.

All right, Paul then says - If you're single, great. If you can't handleit, get married. So, there is not command that everybody has to marry or that spirituality is being single. No.

All right, second group, and here comes practical advise to those who are married to a Christian, this includes most of us. We have Christian husbands, Christian wives. Now what does he say to us? Verse 10 and 11, "And unto the married," now you say - How do you know they're Christians? Because he speaks to the ones that are mixed marriages beginning in verse 12, so we know that here he's speaking to Christians. You'll see that in a minute. "Unto the married I command, yet it isn't I but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband."

Now, to the married - now I want you to remember something, remember something we talked about last week, we said that in Rome there were atleast four different ways to get married, right? In the Roman Empire? Slaves living in tent companionship, common law marriage, what we called ususmarriage, where it wassort of you buy the wife, you pay a certain amount and then there was the great big confarreatio, noble type marriage, by whatever form ... the Bible just says - well, whatever a way it was, now the issue isn't how you got into it but the issue is stay where you are. If you're married, look at it, "I command, yet it isn't really me doing this, the Lord has given us the word on this, Let not the wife depart from her husband."

And here he's simply saying - Jesus already had something to say Matthew 19:9 and Mark 10:11 and 12 all three about it ... Matthew 5:32, of those passages, our Lord Jesus Christ says stay married. Do not divorce. Notice, it says at the end of verse 10, "Let not the wife depart," the word depart is a technical term for divorce ... don't divorce your partner. You say - Well, why would two Christians want to divorce? Well, in Corinth., you see, they were saying - Well, celibacy is the only way to go ... once you become a Christian you've got to drop all the physical part and you've got to devote yourself to Christ, we will not divorce and separate and give ourselves to Christ. He says - Forget it ... don't do that ... don't divorce. There is no divorce tolerated among Christians. God hates divorce, Malachi 2, "I hate putting away," God says, "I hate divorce." He condemned the Israelites, He says: "You have done treacherously against the wife of your youth," You're divorcing one another.

Now, some of the Corinthians had already done it...too late. Two Corinthian Christians, they had decided they ought to get a divorce ... for spiritual reason, quote/unquote. Can you imagine how that would run? If the Bible says - You may get a divorce if you want to devote yourself totally to the Lord? Can you imagine what would happen? Everybody would be using that excuse just to get rid of the partner they didn't want. Well, we're divorcing for spiritual reasons. The truth of the matter is he's been trying to shed her for years, he just found a verse to proof it, you know, and he can... So, God doesn't allow that. There must be a continuous union. No, let not the wife depart, but some had already done it... some had already done it, verse 11. "But if she does depart," now that assumes that somebody in Corinth had already done it, too late, it's already happened, what are the consequences? "Let her remain ... what? ... unmarried, single the rest of her life or be reconciled to her husband." Only two choices if Christians divorce. They either stay single all the rest of their life or they come together again ... to reconcile.

Now, let me add a footnote, very important footnote. Paul here is not dealing with a case of adultery. That is foreign to his discussion.

In cases of adultery, listen to me, divorce was allowed among Christians. Where one Christian commits an adulterous act, God allows for a breaking of that marriage bond. Matthew 5:32, "I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife except for the cause of fornication,'' and that can be sexual sin of all kinds, "except for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced commits adultery." Except for fornication no divorce, but in the case of fornication, God says there is divorce.

Matthew 19:9, same thing. "And I say, Whosoever shall put away his wife except for fornication and marry another, commits adultery." The only ground that Jesus ever gave for the dissolution of a marriage was sexual immorality. And when that occurs, there is the right to divorce. That is very clear even in the case of Joseph. You remember that in...in Matthew 1, Joseph was shocked when he found out that Mary was pregnant. Remember that? Because he knew Mary and he knew that it was totally out of character for her to be pregnant. He knew he hadn't done it. They had had no relationships. Matthew 1:19, "Joseph, her husband, being a just man, not willing to make her a public example, was minded to divorce her privately." Listen, Joseph had every right to divorce Mary if she had become pregnant by another person. And the Bible says Joseph, her husband, being a ... what kind of man?... just man, a righteous man. Listen, he acted righteously in a desire to divorce a wife who had committed adultery. Now he found out she hadn't. The wonderful story was the Holy Spirit had conceived within her the Christ child.

But, you see, itis a just thing to put away a wife for the cause of adultery or for a wife to put away or divorce a husband for that cause...only that cause. But in this text, I Corinthians, that is not the issue. For any other reason than that, there is no tolerance of divorce. No, says Paul, apart from sexual sin, no divorce. If you've done it already, then you have to stay single the rest of your life because that union, that one union was never broken. Your stuck single all your life. Or, you can be reconciled to your husband.

And you can be sure, in the case of real obedience, that they would do that second thing .... if it was still possible. And then he reverses it in verse 11 and says: "Let not the husband put away his wife," as well as the wife not putting away her husband.

All right, what has he said? To be single is good... stay single if you have the gift. If you're married to a Christian, stay married and fulfill every aspect of marriage. The physical ... we talked about it in verses 3 through 5, don't deprive one another sexually, fulfill every partof marriage, fulfill it to its limits.

So, we've seen the single people and those married to a Christian.

Group three, those married to an unbeliever who wants to stay, verses 12 to 14. Now what happens in this situation is...let's say you've got a lady, and she says - You know, I've become a Christian and my husband is an out-and-out pagan. What do I do? Can I divorce him and marry a nice Christian man? That's a fair question. And then further, look at this, look at back at chapter 6 verse 15; this is what Paul had been teaching, listen. "Don't you know that your bodies are the members of...what?...Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot, God forbid." What? "Know ye not that he who is joined to a harlot is ... what? ... one body, for two, saith He, shall be one flesh but he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." Now, remember what we said about that? The Christian is one with Christ, right? The Christian is a member of the body of Christ. If a Christian joins himself to a harlot, he defiles Christ. Right? Can you see how the Corinthians would say - Well, look, if I'm a member of Christ, if I'm one with the Lord, and I join myself to my pagan husband, am I defiling Christ? Do you see? That reasoning is possible. Wouldn't this be a defiling thing? If I would continue in this marriage, here am I a member of Christ, joining myself to a member of Satan, am I not being defiled? Man, I've got to get out of this thing. And maybe some very conscientious people really felt that way. Maybe they really did.

What about a mixed marriage? What about it? Well, in the ... there's several things to think about in a mixed marriage. Number one, mixed marriages are forbidden when they ... when they can be prevented, right? Verse 39, at the end, says - If you're going to marry, marry only in the Lord. So, the idea of a Christian marrying a non-Christian is totally in disobedience to Scripture. But what happens if you're already married and one gets saved? What is he saying? Do I have to throw him out? What about it?

Well, look at verse 12, "To the rest," that is to those who are in mixed marriages, "speak I not the Lord." In other words, I'm not quoting Christ anymore, there is no previous instruction in the gospels, hot that it isn't revelation, it is. "To the rest speak I, not quoting the Lord, if any brother has a wife that believes not," not a Christian, "but she is pleased to dwell with him, let him not divorce her." If you have an unsaved wife and she wants to stay, let her stay... let her stay.

"And the woman," verse 13, "who has a husband that believes not, if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him." God doesn't want everybody getting saved and saying - Well, good-bye, Charlie, that's it for us...go out and find myself a nice Christian fella. No, no, it was a bad thing in the early years of Christianity that the Christians were accused of destroying family relationships. A lot of pagan husbands really uptight about their wives getting saved. You know, for a woman to change religion without her husband was unthinkable, but it was happening. And one of the things I was reading and one of the ancient historians Tertullian was commenting on it, one of the things that the pagan husbands made a big issue out of was the holy kiss. And maybe the early church got a little carried -awaywith the holy kiss and one husband said - I don't want my wife going out spending all night at nocturnal convocations and pascal solemnities, creeping into prisons to kiss martyrs. Well, so there were some things that were upsetting and I'm sure some Christians who didn't behave wisely had some problems in their mixed marriages.

They would be difficult not to sympathize with some pagan husbands and pagan wives whose partners were not behaving as they should. But he says -Look, if you have a partner who doesn't believe but wants to stay, don't divorce, let him stay ... let him stay. You say - But wait a minute, won't I get defiled? Won't this union defile me? Well, let's find out.

Look at verse 14, very interesting. "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband." Now wait a minute here. Do you know something folks? Not only is the believer not contaminated, but what happens? The very opposite. You say - Well, will I be defiled by the unbeliever? No, he'll be sanctified by you. Fantastic. Instead of a Christian being defiled or made unholy, the unbeliever is actually made holy.

Sometimes I ask a person, I say - Do you come from a Christian home? No...I'm the only Christian there. Do you know how many Christians it takes to make a Christian home? One Christian. You say - What do you mean? Everybody else in the house is sanctified by your presence. Did you know that? You say - John, what do you mean by sanctified, that's a very strong word? I know it's a strong word. Sanctified means set apart, holy. You say - But what's it saying here? Well, it isn't saying that the guy's automatically converted, it's not saying if a husband doesn't believe he is saved anyway... just because he's married to a Christian. No ... no it isn't saying that and it isn't saying an unbelieving wife is saved automatically just because she's married to a Christian husband. Well, what does the word sanctified mean? Well, this is what we call matrimonial sanctification. And what do you mean by that? Well, that's just a term to distinguish it from spiritual and personal sanctification. You become set apart unto God and holy when you believe in Christ...but just having been in a home or living in a home where somebody is a Christian, has a sanctifying influence. Paul doesn't mean that the unbeliever is automatically made a Christian by marriage but what he does mean is that the marriage is benefited and that everybody in the house reaps the benefits.

For example, two people when they get married become ... what?...one. If God blesses one of those ... one of that one, then the other one is going to get some of the spill over, right? That's all he's saying. Hey, if you're a non-Christian, and you've got a Christian mate, you ought to thank God because your home is the recipient of the blessings of God. God pours out grace and mercy on that home and just because you happen to be connected to that partner, you are the recipient of those things. Short of salvation, but nevertheless, far superior to living in a totally pagan home. Marriage to a Christian creates a relationship to God for the non-Christian though while it is short of salvation; it is far superior to pagan life. Listen, one Christian in a home makes a Christian home ... and graces that entire home.

After the service in the first hour, a gal came to me and she said You know, that message was just what I needed to hear. She said - I never understood that. Do you know, she said, we had in our entire home, mom, dad, all the kids, just one Christian - Grandma. Grandma use to talk about Christ -everybody thought - Oh, Grandma, cool it! You know, all through.... nobody wanted to listen, see. And you know what happened in the years that have passed? Three out of the four children have come to Jesus Christ and all of them, she said, go back to the influence of Grandma.

You see, that kind of grace extended to the home through that one individual blessed of God will radiate to those who touch that life. Do you remember a conversation Abraham had with God in Genesis 18? Abraham said -God, if I could find fifty righteous people in Sodom; would You spare the whole city? God said - Yeah. Abraham came back and said - If I could find 45, would You spare the city? Yeah Ah... twenty? Yeah. Ah, God, if I could find ten, would You spare the city? Yeah. Couldn't find ten, could he? But you know something? Ten righteous people could have been the means of the blessing of a whole city of people. Why? Because just being around God's people means you are the recipient of some of His sanctifying blessing.

You know, you may be in a home where there's only one Christian and you know something? You are the beneficiary of the blessing of God upon that one person's life because, you see, God sees Mom and Dad as one, and God sees Mom and Dad and kids as one unit, doesn't He? And He cannot Pour blessing on one independent of the rest because in His eyes they are inextricably linked together. You know, if you're not a Christian but your partner is, you ought to really thank God that you live in a home where God is at work cause you are the beneficiary.

You know, it's like when your wife gets a huge inheritance and you have nothing to do with it, you aren't even related to the people, but man, do you cash in. It's the same thing. You're not even related to God but you're cashing in on the benefits that He's pouring out on her. It's a blessed thing for an unbeliever to be married to a Christian, let it stay that way. Christian, if that's your ... if your partner wants to stay, let him stay and sense the blessing of God. Who knows but what that sanctifying matrimonial grace might lead to saving grace, right?

Now, Paul goes a step further. King of supporting his point he gives a little argument in reverse here. He says, "Else were your children unclean but now are they holy." He's saying - If you weredefiled by an unbeliever, then your children would be products who were defiled, right? And apparently that's what some of the Corinthians were saying. You know, my husband is not saved, we've got to stop all sex relations, you know, we might have a half-breed. That's right. Half Christian - half pagan...child, see. Or, what are we going.... you know, we have ... my husband is not a Christian, I can't subject my children to that pagan influence. Now wait a minute. They'll be defiled. No, no. He says - Look, here's a simple fact. Paul lays it down. Now are your children ... what? ... holy. Your childr...same word as sanctified, it should be translated the same as the earlier sanctified. Your children are sanctified by this same grace, short of salvation but nevertheless a kind of gracious life and the blessing of God is attendant on them. And if it's true that your children are sanctified and not unclean, then as reasoning goes backwards, it's true, also, that your spouse is also sanctified.

Don't worry about being in a pagan home from that standpoint. If you're the only Christian there, God says - That's a Christian home. If you're the only Christian there, God will pour out His blessing on you andrather than you beingdefiled, they will be sanctified both your spouse and your children and pray to God that someday that matrimonial sanctification will lead to gracious and total sanctification when you put your faith in Jesus Christ.

So, if you're married to an unbeliever and they want to stay let them stay ... let them stay ... because that's to their benefit.

Fourth group, and this will pick up everybody that hasn't been covered.Those married to unbelievers who want to go. Some of you have that problem. You've got an unbelieving partner and he can't stand your Christianity and he wants out. Verse 15: "But if the unbelieving depart, fight him." Is that what it says? Don't let him go, who will give him the gospel? Is that what it says? It says ... what?..."Let him go."

You say - John! Don't talk to me, call up heaven, you know. It's right there. If the unbelieving depart - let him go. If he divorces, middle voice, middle voice means reflexive ... In other words, this is where the unbeliever initiates the divorce, let him go. Don't fight the divorce, don't go to court and fight the ... just let it go ... let hi...if he wants out, let him go. The word depart refers again to divorce. It is a technical term for divorce. The unbeliever divorced the believer and the believer is told let him go, don't fight it. You say Don't fight it but what happens to me when he's gone, I'm stuck for life., There's no adultery and I'm, I'm...I'm going ... I can't handle that.

No, you're not stuck for life. Look at verse 15. "If the unbelieving depart, let him depart, a brother or a sister is not under ... what? ... bondage in such cases." Do you know what? You are ... what?... free. Free from what? From bondage. The bondage of what? The only bondage that marriage has reference to, the bond of marriage, you're free. Free to what? Free to remarry. That's what he's saying. You are free to remarry; you are no longer under bondage. And the word bondage is the word that's used in Romans7:2 when it talks about marriage being bound by the law to a husband. Marriage is bondage, in Paul's vocabulary and here he s saying you are free from that marriage.

You say - Yes, but my, my, you certainly couldn't remarry'. Why? It doesn't say that. When God wants to say you can't remarry, He says it. Verse 11, "If she departs out of a Christian marriage, she must remain...what? ... unmarried." But here, if the unbeliever departs and he gets the divorce, a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. So, the marriage is ended. You see, desertion is like adultery in its effect, it disrupts the tie. Don't fight it, let him go.

Well, you say - Why let him go? "Cause God has called us to peace." You know, one of the benefits of being a Christian is to have a peaceful life ... the peace of God... the gracious life. And, you know, there's nothing that God needs less than constant fighting, tension, frustration and turmoil in a home. A fighting, angry, quarreling home is not God's objective, nor, people, is marriage primarily a foundation for evangelism. Well, I'm going to hang on to that guy until he gets saved. You know, you'll just drive him right out. If he wants to go, let him go, let him leave rejecting Christianity not hating you.

But there's going to be one objection because some conscientious Christian is going to say - Now listen to me, if I do that, if I let him go, I lose the opportunity to see him saved. If I let him go, whose going to bring him to Christ? I lose the opportunity to bring him to Christ and salvation.

So Paul deals with that in verse 16. He says this: "For what o you know, 0 wife, whether you're going to save him? Or, how do you know, 0 man, whether you're going to save your wife?" Don't go on that premise, because you don't know that. He's not saying here Keep them so you can save them, -he's saying - Let them go because you have no guarantee you will. And in the meantime you will destroy the peace that God intends to give. Let him go.

Who saves people? Who does? God. And one thing that God has never really needed is quarrelsome, tension-filled, angry, hostile homes in which to save people. He doesn't really need that. He can do it without it. Let him go. Marriage is not primarily an instrument of evangelism and to cling to a marriage which the unsaved is determined to end will only lead to terrible tension. It is God who saves.

Paul answers the question, doesn't he? What if your ... what if your single? Is that good? Good, be single. God's given you a gift, be single. Use it for His glory. But if you burn, get married.

Well, what if you're married to a Christian, what do you do? Stay married to him. Fulfill that marriage to the very limits physically and in every way.

Well, what if You're married to an unbeliever who wants to stay? Let him stay and grace his life and the life of your children with your blessing that comes from God.

Well, what if he wants to go? Let him go because God has called you to peace. But who...who will witness to him? Don't worry about that, you have no idea that you're even the instrument, God knows and God will do it in His way.

What is the upshot of all of this? I can only say it in closing like this Whatever God has given you as your marital state, accept it as His will, and maximize it for His glory. I can only think of one song when I was kind of wrapping my thoughts up, you know what it was? It was this: My life is Yours, God, here's my response - Have Thine own way, Lord, have Thine own way. Thou art the potter ... what? ... I am... mold me and make me after Thy will. That's all.

If You've chosen to make me single, that's good. If You've chosen that I should marry, that's good. If You've chosen that I should be married to a...to an unbeliever who wants to stay, that's good. If You've chosen that I should marry and I'm married to an unbeliever who wants to go and he goes, that's good because I am free and maybe God has another for me.

I don't know what God wants for you. But I know this that His will is purposeful and will be fruitful as we abide in it.

We're going to close in a minute with just prayer, but I want to say this, we...we assume when we teach the Word of God that the Spirit of God just sort of picks up the words and carries them to your heart. And that He sort of does a planting work. We were out yesterday digging holes in the ground and sticking plants in and I thought about the Holy Spirit, how He just takes the Word and plants it. And I know that He's done that in your life today and maybe in response to what He's doing, you're feeling some things inside and you're saying - You know, I ... I want to say - God, Your will, Your will, Your will. If you need to pray, seek counsel about that, maybe you just say - Hey, I'm one of those unbelievers who needs to get on in. I've sensed some of the grace that kind of flows around Christians and I'd like to be a part of it. Whatever the need of your life, and if you're willing to say to the Lord - You have Your way with me, whatever You want -we'd love to help you, pray with you, get you going in the right direction. Let God have His way in your life today that He might bear the fruit that He wants to bear through you to His glory.

Thank You, Father, for, with clarity and practical insight, instructing us this morning. And we do pray that we would be obedient to Your will in all things and we'll praise You in Jesus' name. Amen.

Christians and Social Revolution

I've entitled the message, "Are Christians social Revolutionaries?" Are Christians social Revolutionaries? There has been much said in the past about the revolutionary nature of Christianity and there's been much printed about Christian revolution and there has been much discussion about the social implications of Christianity and does Christianity bear weight against social status and social institutions and what kind of weight does it bear, if any? What social activism is justified biblically, etc., etc.? Well, this simple passage, not difficult to understand once you really see it, from verses 17 to 24 will help us to focus on the priorities of the Christian experience, particularly as they relate to social things.

Now, the Word of God speaks authoritatively on almost every subject that we can imagine at least if not in particular, in general. And as we have looked at 1 Corinthians, we have been made aware of the fact that already in just the first seven chapters; many, many practical areas of living have been touched on by this letter.

Now, in the seventh chapter we have noticed that Paul is writing about the issue of marriage. The Bible has a lot to say about that particular subject. It talks about single people and their behavior. It talks about married people and their behavior. It talks about divorced people. It talks about widows. It has much to say about what is required within a marriage, what God's standards are for the life of the husband, the wife, the children. There is much in the Word of God about the whole theme of marriage. Some of what is in the Word of God is contained here in the seventh chapter of Corinthians.

Now the Corinthians were having problems, as we saw in the last two messages, with the whole subject of marriage. The problem basically arose from the fact that when people were becoming Christians, there was certain pressure being put upon them to conform to a certain view of marriage. For example, you're a single person and you happen to get saved in the city of Corinth and you attend the Corinthian assembly. There are some well-meaning Jews there who believe, because Orthodox Judaism always believed this, that to be single is to defy the law of God. God said to multiply, replenish the earth and if you do not do that then you are slaying the posterity of God. And so the Jews would say you must get married, especially now that you're a Christian. And so there was tremendous pressure being put on single people, some of whom had beengiven by the Holy Spirit the charisma of celibacy or the grace gift of singleness. God intended them to be single but the Jews were laying it heavy on them to be married.

On the other hand, you had a kind of an ascetic attitude "that was a holdover from pagan philosophy and some of the Gentiles were coming into the church and saying marriage is not the thing, singleness is the thing because then you can be ascetic totally devoted to God and you don't have any of the encumbrances of marriage. And what you really ought to do if you're married is get a divorce and get out of your marriage. And it went further than that, especially if you happened to be married to an unbeliever, dump him for sure because he'll defile you and if you have children, you'll have half-breed defiled children.

So these were the confusing elements in the Corinthian situation regarding marriage. And so some were saying everybody has to get married, some were saying everybody has to get single again so we can be totally devoted to God. And there would be a high level of spirituality in the Jew's mind connected with marriage and a high level of spirituality in the Gentile philosopher's mind connected with being single. So Paul has to speak to these issues. And he writes the seventh chapter in response to that very struggle. Some were challenging marriage and some were challenging the right to be single.

Now we've already seen what Paul has to say to the single, to the married and to those who are married to unbelievers. And now, as we look at verse 17, Paul takes these particular things that he has said and draws from them a general principle.And this is very interesting. It's very simple. And it's very repetitious so I'm sure you're going to go away understanding the basic principle, the tough thing is going to be where you apply it and that the Holy Spirit will have to work out with you. But Paul takes the particulars that he has given and makes a general rule out of it in verses 17 to 24.

Now here is the general principle. I'm just going to state it to you and then we'll see how it unfolds. "Christians should not be concerned with changing their outward circumstances." Christians should not be preoccupied with changing their outward circumstances. Now that's the basic principle. The Christian life is not a social issue. It is not social revolution, it is spiritual regeneration. There is no reason to say, 'Now you're a Christian, you have to stop being single ... now you're a Christian, you've got to dissolve your marriage and be celibate ... now you're a Christian, dump that

Unsaved spouse or you'll defile yourself ... now you're a Christian and a slave, get out of that slavery, Christianity cannot be commensurate with bondage, you're free, tell your master to go fly a kite, you're walking out."

You see, Christianity was never designed to be a disrupter of social relationships. And that is Paul's message. And what was happening in the Corinthian church was this; they were coming in and using their Christianity as a justification for all kinds of social change. They were dumping husbands and wives, single people were being forced into getting married when they had the gift of celibacy which God had granted them for unique purposes of ministry. Slaves were chaffing under the role of slavery and saying, "I demand to be free. After all, we're equal, one in Christ#, Galatians 3:28, there is neither male nor female, bond or free, but all are one in Christ." And all of this social reactionary attitude could have destroyed the testimony of the Corinthian assembly...just destroyed it because if anybody began to see Christianity as a social revolution, they would put the revolution down and then they would lose the opportunity to be exposed to the reality of Christianity which is a transformed life, not a social reformation.

So, what Paul is saying is don't turn Christianity into social thing, make sure that everybody understands that it is a spiritual regeneration and that it can exist in any kind of social situation. Now that's the basic content of these verses.

There is no question in my mind and certainly in the mind of anybody who studies the Bible that Christianity must have had a profound effect upon society. The fact of miracles and signs and wonders, the teaching of equality of the sexes and of bond and free, the tremendous preoccupation with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the idea of coming judgment, the idea of eternal bliss in heaven, disdained for any earthly wealth, these things were factors that were very very hard for the world to understand. And I'm sure it had a profound effect.

And in the midst of this effect which I think at that point is legitimate, it could have had an effect further than that that would have been illegitimate. It was enough that the world was confused without confusing them further by making Christianity not just theological but social. And so the Spirit of God wants to make sure that the world always keeps its perspective. Yes there are signs and wonders, yes there is a preoccupation with heaven and eternal things and a disdain f or the earthly things, yes there is the coming of the Lord Jesus for the Christian that's good, for the non-Christian that's bad, yes all of these things are true but let's keep it at the spiritual level and let's not make Christianity a justification to overthrow the government. Because when we do that, then we become just like every other revolution and the distinctiveness is lost.

Now Paul wants to show in this passage that being a Christian does not mean that you have to create chaos by jolting the institutions in which you live. The point is this; a relationship to Christ is compatible with any social status. You can be single, married, widowed, divorced. You can be a slave, a free man. You can be a Jew. You can be a Gentile. You can be a man. You can be a woman. You can live in any kind of society, democracy or total anarchy, or you can live in a dictatorship. You can be anywhere from America to Cuba to Red China to any place in the world and Christianity is compatible with any social status. Why? Because it is internal, not external. And Paul says, Corinthians, if you'll please let the world keep the perspective by not using Christianity as a justification to misrepresent the truth."

It doesn't matter what you are. It doesn't matter what the society is, in terms of the basic identity of Christianity. The gospelis not an immediately revolutionizing disorganizing element in society. For example, if a wife becomes a Christian, what should she be? A better wife, right? If a husband becomes a Christian, what should he be? A better husband, 1 Corinthians 7 talks about those two things. If you have a friend who becomes a Christian, what should he immediately be to you? A better friend. If there is a slave who becomes a Christian, what should he be? A better slave. A master who becomes a Christian? A better master. A citizen who becomes a Christian, what should he become? A better citizen. Not a social reactionary.

Now this is repeatedly spelled out in the New Testament. Now lest I be mi sunder stood, let me add this footnote. I am not saying that Christianity has nothing to do with social activism. I feel that the Bible is very clear about the fact that we are to meet the needs of people, that we are to bind up the wounded, that we are to feed the hungry, that we are to clothe the naked, that we are to house the lonely and the outcast. The Bible is very clear that we are to do good to all men, especially those of the household of faith. There is a social responsibility that Christianity has that Christians should seek justicein a society through the means that the society provides; that Christianity should seek right and honest things and that Christianity should speak the truth ofGod against an unjust, unrighteous society. But the heartbeat of Christianity with all of its deep social ramifications is still this, it is a spiritual regeneration and spiritually transformed people will change a society not like dynamite but like leaven, not by blowing the lid off the society but by spreading the power of Christianity through the transformed lives of the people within that society.

And so I would say it this way. Christianity interferes indirectly, not directly with social institutions. Christianity has really been the cause of great social change in history. But not by exploding on that society, but by leavening that society, that means penetrating it at its roots. Paul reveals the divine truth that Christianity is never to become a superficial social situation. It is always compatible with any earthly circumstance in any society. Eventually, as it grows, the seeds of godliness and justice and righteousness, etc., will begin to affect the society in which it grows. I believe that in whatever place in society a person finds himself, he can be a Christian. And he can be a good Christian.

I think of Russia. Some people think that it would be impossible to be a Christian in Russia. Do you know that the Christian church in Russia is growing by leaps and bounds? I told you that within a matter of weeks and months at the most, we will be broadcasting into Russia. The messages that we give you here are now being translated into Russian, 1 and 2 Peter, to be broadcast into Russia. And the estimation of the listeners that are hearing the Word that is going in there is between 14 and 20 million people who are listening to an all Christian radio station with a ... I don't know ... half a million watts beaming in there that is so massive that the Russian government can't afford to stop it or block it. It's outside the country and they can't afford the equipment to jam it, apparently. And God may have something to do with it.

But the point is, there are people hearing the Word. And they were saying, "You know, we need to get tapes and we'll translate them into Russia and we'll get the tapes into Russia." And I said, "Well, how you going to do that?" "Oh, all we have to do is take one tape in, the Christians have duplicating places where they reproduce all the tapes and pass them all over everywhere." The government may have something to do with the organized church, but it can't do anything to put out the life of God that God is planting in the hearts of people. And the folks told me that on any given time when the Word of God is being preached, they estimate somewhere around 14 million people are listening to the word of God in Russia.

You can be a Christian in any society because Christianity is a spiritual relationship to the living God and it has little or nothing to do with social status. Now this is the principle that Paul wants to get across here because he wants the Corinthians to know that being a Christian is no reason to start changing every kind of social relationship. The principle he states in verse 17, in verse 20and in verse 24, he repeats it three times, the same principle. And then in between those three times, he illustrates it. So point one is the principle, then the illustration two, then the principle again, then the illustration and then the principle at the end.

Now notice as we go, let's begin with the principle, first of all, in verse 17. Now the words "God" and the "Lord" in the manuscripts should be reversed, so it should read this way: "Only--and that's probably a better way to start the verse--Only as the Lord has distributed to every man as God has called everyone, so let him walk and so ordain land all the churches."

Now however it is that God's called you, stay there. Don't create a social revolution. Whatever God has allotted to you, just keep in that course. Everybody walk in the chosen course that God has given him. Conversion does not mean that single people who have the gift of celibacy are to get married. It doesn't mean that married people are to break their marriage; it doesn't mean that at all. It doesn't mean that if you're married to an unbeliever you dump the unbeliever, no, not a bit. Stay where you are. If you're a slave, stay a slave. If you're a Jew, stay a Jew. If you're a Gentile, stay a Gentile. Stay where you are. This is the general principle. The normal thing is to maintain your social status.

Now I hasten to add it doesn't mean that if you got saved when you were 13 and you were single that you have to stay single the rest of your life. It doesn't mean that. It is a general principle, not an absolute law; Later on you'll see how that works. I mean, it even said in chapter 7, remember, that if you're married, stay married. But then it gave an exception. If an unbeliever wants to depart, let him depart. So there's a general principle that does have exception. Here is one as well. God says, "Stay the way you are." That's the general rule. Now if you're a slave, stay a slave, but if freedom does come along; takeit, just don't be preoccupied with that problem. We are not to create social turmoil.

Why? Verse 15, back up and remember this principle. We saw it last time. The end of verse 15, "God has called us to...what? What did He call us to? ... peace." Whatever it is that we do in the world should have the ultimate effect of making ... what? Peace.

Now you say, "Well, the Christians in Russia should have overthrown the Russian society." Why? What biblical justification is there for another Christian revolution like the Bolshevik Revolution that brought communism? They can be a Christian within a communist society. And when God gets ready to change that society, the roots of Christianity spreading through that society may bring its downfall. But if Christianity turns into a social issue, then do you know what you have? You have exactly what's going on in Ireland and nobody understands that. And the whole testimony of Christianity is totally destroyed, you see? Because Christianity there is nothing but a social issue. Better that the church should leaven the society than take guns. That only confuses the issue. God has called us to what? To peace, stay where you are. Whatever situation you find yourself, stay there. "Blessed are the peacemakers," said Jesus.

In Romans 12:18 it says, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men." In Romans 14:19, "So then, let us pursue the things which make for peace." In 2 Corinthians 13:11, "Live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you." Hebrews 12:14, "Pursue peace with all men." In James, "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable; gentle, easy to be entreated, full ofmercy, good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy."

If you are exemplifying and communicating the wisdom from above, divine wisdom, it is first of all pure then peaceable. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace. If you're going to really bring about righteousness in a world, it's going to be sown by what? Peace ... peace, by them that make peace.

In 2 Timothy chapter 2, Paul says to Timothy, "Now, Timothy, you be a peaceful man and you maintain that peaceful stance." And there's a reason for that. He says this, "In meekness instructing those that oppose, if God perhaps will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil." In other words, Timothy, if you're peaceful and patient and gentle and long suffering, God will use that to bring people to the knowledge of the truth and free them from Satan. The way to I evangelize the world is not through social revolution but it is through spiritual regeneration. So, he's saying if you guys split all of the social institutions down the middle and create chaos, you're not going to help the cause a bit.

Now notice the seventeenth verse for some particulars. "Only as the Lord has distributed to every man..." The Greek verb for "distribute" means to apportion to one his share of something. If you're a slave, who is it that apportioned to you that position? Who is it? It's the Lord. If you're a wife, who is it that apportioned to you that position? The Lord. Husband? Single person. Whatever it is, remember this, whatever the Lord has allotted to you in whatever way God has called you, so continue to walk. If you're a slave, did you know that God put you in that position before He saved you and He saved you in that position to use you in that position? If you're single, God had you single before He saved you. If you're married, God allotted to you a marriage situation and saved you in it to use you in it. God knew that. God saved you in a certain situation, for the time stay in that situation--married, unmarried, mixed marriage, circumcised, enslaved, free, whatever it is, your life status is given by the Lord.

Now that's' an interesting thing to realize, people. The kind of jobs you have and the kind of marital status you have is related to the plan of God, even before you got saved. And when the Lord redeemed you in that, He redeemed you in that to use you in that, at least for the moment. Don't be discontent. Don't say, "Oh, now that I'm a Christian I can't do this anymore."

Now I'm not talking about...I know, if you're ... if you run a brothel or you peddle whisky across the state line or something, that's something different because that's illegal and immoral. But when we're talking about things that are just social relational things that have no moral value, God doesn't expect you all of a sudden that you're a Christian to bail out of everything. God has you there for a reason. He had you there before He even saved you, saved you while you were there and so it's simple, stay that way. Whatever social situation you're in, God can work and Christianity can be compatible with that so stay where you are. Let's not make Christianity the upheaval of the whole society. Let's show people in the world, says Paul, that Christianity gives solidarity to society, that it gives solidarity to life, not that it's chaotic. We don't want women leaving their husbands who are unbelievers to find nice Christian husbands just because they're Christians now and think they can't live with an unsaved man. No, stay there. So let him walk.

Now, after stating the principle, he illustrates it. Now watch verses 18 and 19. This is a fascinating illustration, believe me. When I first read this I didn't really understand it. "Is any man called being circumcised?" Were any of you ... the word "called" means saved. "Were any of you saved while you were circumcised?" Now a circumcised person is a what? Is a Jew. All right, were any of you saved when you were Jews?Well, of course, many of them. Then do what? "Let him not become uncircumcised." You say, "A lot of chance he's got of that." I mean, that's what I said when I first read it. Well, it's real nice...don't you dare get uncircumcised. Oh, don't worry, I won't, I won't. It seems a little bit irrelevant.

You know, I did some research on that cause I figured if it's in the Bible it's got to have a meaning. And even though it sounds like it would be little bit difficult, do you know that there was a period of history in Israel, between the close of the Old Testament, Ezra and Nehemiah, and the opening of the New, the arrival of John the Baptist, there was a 400 year period and during that period, the Greeks; ruled in Israel. And there was a man there by the name of Antiochus who ruled. There was an interesting reaction to his rule. Some people revolted against it, the Maccabees, Judas Maccabaeus and his sons who were Jews and very zealous and patriotic and nationalistic, they started the Maccabean revolution, revolted against Antiochus.

On the other hand, there were some Jews who wanted to go along with the Greek stem because they wanted to gain favor and social prestige and social status.

The history of Judas Maccabaeus and his revolution is contained in three books, First, Second and Third Maccabees. Now those three books appear in the apocrypha, which is the non-biblical part of the Catholic Bible. For example, some of you may know that middle part, that has Ezra, Bell and the dragon and all that in there. Well, First and Second and Third Maccabees tell the story of that Maccabean revolt during those intertestimental years. They're not biblical books but they have interesting history in them. And it tells us in the first chapter of 1 Maccabees, from about verse 11 to 16, that there were renegade Jews who wanted to identify with the Greeks. And so they actually went through a surgical operation to try to remove the scars of circumcision so that they could go to the gymnasium, says Josephus, and appear as uncircumcised.

You say, "Well, why would they do that?" Well, it's obvious why they would do that. They would do that for the purpose of identifying with the Greeks for social status. So you know what Paul says, "Look, if you were saved a Jew, don't do that." You say, "Well, why not?" Let me tell you. A Jew comes to Christ. He gets saved. Who would be the most likely person that he then could lead to Christ? Another Jew, right? And somebody in his own family. So if a Jew comes to Christ and immediately renounces his Judaism, wants to get uncircumcised and totally identify with the Gentile culture, what are his Jewish friends going to say? They're going to call him a what? A blasphemer, an apostate who isn't fit for heaven. To remove the mark of the covenant would be unthinkable. And he would immediately alienate himself from the harvest field that he is most capable of reaping in. Do you see? So Paul says don't do that.

There were some Gentiles in the church saying, "Now that you're a Christian, if you really want to reach the Gentile society you're going to have to ... you're going to have to quit, you know, the Jewish thing and you certainly can't go with me down to the local spa down here and everybody's going to know, you know, you've got to do something about that, fella, otherwise you'll not reach these people. And he says, "Look, stay the way you are because in your effort to reach those people, you probably won't succeed anyway and you'll alienate the people that God intends you to reach, your own people." Every one of us has a harvest field. There's no reason to alienate all the Jews who feel strongly about their Jewishness.

I think one of the things that's kind of exciting about today, you know, we see people today who are Jews, they get saved, and they don't reject their Jewishness. They hold on to their Jewishness and this gives them accessibility back into the Jewish community, doesn't it? They have an open door, maybe, to friends and family when they maintain something of the belief and the love of the Jewish heritage, even though they have seen it fulfilled in the Messiah, there's no reason to assume that they have to deny all of that heritage. To deny it and become a Gentile would alienate them from the harvest field that God would give them the most fruit in.

Now, he turns it over in the next part of verse 18 and says, "Is any called in circumcision?" Were any of you saved while you were Gentiles? "Let him not be circumcised." Now you know what this story's all about, don't you? Some Gentiles came to Christ and what would the Jews say? Oh, it's so nice that you've come to Christ but listen, if you want to get in on the really great stuff in the Kingdom; you've got to have this operation.

Now, I don't think it was like Galatia. In Galatia they were telling the Christians there they had to get circumcised to be saved. I think here they're trying to show them that they had to have this to get the full blessing. And the reason I believe that is because Paul would have been a lot more adamant here if it was an issue like Galatia for salvation. But I think the Jews here were saying, You ought to identify with God's people ... you ought to identify with the covenant people and we'll just have this little operation.' And you know what? The Gentiles looked down on the circumcision and the Jews as despised people. They really believed that the Jews were a lowclassed despised people.

Now to identify with the Jews then would have alienated a Gentile from what? From all his people. And you see, then he would have alienated himself from the harvest field that God had designed him to reach. Do you see the point? God says just stay where you are, that's where I have you for the reason that I have you there, to reach those people. Don't worry about your social status. It doesn't matter.

Look at verse 19, this is pretty clear. "Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing." Neither one of them matter. "But the keeping of the commandments of God." The only issue is a moral issue, a spiritual issue, not an external. It doesn't matter what operation you had or didn't have. And there's no sense for something that doesn't matter, there is no sense in you alienating yourself from all your friends and all your family. There's no sense.

I could say a lot about the word "obedience," that's the heart of everything, isn't it? The thing that matters in verse 19 is keeping the commandments of God. Let's focus on what is important. Let's not major on the minors. Let's not get bogged down in the externals, the superficial. Let's remember that the issue is obedience.

All right, having stated the principle and illustrated it, he now states it again. And if you think it's repetitious, you're right. Any time God bays something it's important. Any time He has His prophet or his Apostle say it three times, it's that much more important. Verse 20, "Let every man abide in the same calling in which he was called." Let every man stay in the same situation he was in when he was saved. That's precisely what he's saying. Concentrate on the spiritual, emphasize the Christianity, not the circumstances socially. Christians need to be preoccupied with spiritual things.

You know, we live in a democracy and it's exciting but I wouldn't doubt that there are Christians who are as equally mature as we are who are as equally devoted to Jesus Christ and who may realize far more reward than us living in countries where there's total oppression. Because Christianity is compatible with any social situation. And Paul's concern here is that the Christians realize that the primary business is being a Christian, not outward circumstances that are relatively or totally unimportant. Don't ever let outward things become a major importance.

Are you saying that this means you can't have any progress? No. He isn't saying that. He isn't saying you can't have a promotion, you can't advance in your business or your education, or seek a better life, or seek to increase your income or get a better job or change employment. No. Well, what he is saying is don't disrupt the social balance in the name of Christ. In other words, nobody should desire to change his status in life simply because he's a Christian, as if Christianity was incompatible with certain kind of social positions. It isn't. It's compatible with anything. It's well suited to any man, or any woman in any situation in life as long as that person realizes that the key thing is to keep the commandments of the Lord. Obedience is possible in any situation. Now you may pay a higher price for it in some than in others, but it's possible. You see, when the Lord saved you, He didn't save you to change your earthly status, He saved you to change your soul, your eternal destiny.

Now he's going to illustrate it again. Look at verse 21 and 23F and this is illustration number two, and here's a good illustration cause it's an illustration out of slavery. "Art thou called being a slave (doulos, a bond slave)," were you saved as a slave, don't worry about it. Care not for it. That's a Greek idiom, means never mind, it doesn't matter. If you were called as a slave, it doesn't matter. You say, "John, does the Bible say slavery doesn't matter?" No, no, the Bible doesn't say slavery doesn't matter. The Bible says if you were saved as a slave, don't worry about it, you can be a Christian as a slave. Can you? You can be a Christian as an anything, socially speaking. I'm not talking about moral things, but social. Paul is not approving of slavery; he is merely saying that slavery is not an obstacle to Christian living.

You know, in Ephesians chapter 6, Paul has a few words for some slaves. And you know what he says to them is not - Now that you're a Christian, you go to your master and you tell him, Look, fella, you and I are equals, so I'll do what you want today and you'll do what I want tomorrow and we'll just get this thing worked out. No. He says if you're a slave, verse 5 of Ephesians 6, "Be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling and singleness of heart as unto Christ." Stay a good slave. Give that guy everything hat he wants. Serve him with your whole heart as if he was Jesus Christ in the flesh. Give him everything he asks for. "Not with eye service." You know what eye service is? That's working when the boss is looking. Oh, we know about that. "Not with eye service as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart." Hey, you're doing the will of God. If you're a slave, you know why you're a slave? Because God's will is that you be a slave. He saved you as a slave, that's where He has you. That's fine. Whatever you do, the Lord is going to reward you, serve the Lord in that position. Colossians 3:22 to 24 says identically the same thing.

You say, "Well, does the Bible approve of slavery?" No. But it alsodoesn't approve ofChristians creating a social revolution to overthrow it because that misdirects the whole point of Christianity.

You say, "Well, how can we change slavery?" Did you know that the concentration of righteousness that was in Christianity really became the catalyst that ultimately abolished slavery in the world? Christianity has done that. The important thing, you see, is to serve God and a slave shouldn't worry about the fact that he's a slave, he should just serve God. And as this whole righteous kind of life begins to penetrate and spread, the downfall of an enslaving system will occur. Now if the Lord tarries, if the Lord tarries, I believe the seeds of Christianity even in a nation like Russia can ... will bring the downfall of that nation. I believe that and I believe it may come faster than many of us think.

No, the important thing is to serve God. And God will through the righteous life of many bring about His ends socially in the world.

So if you're a slave, be a good slave. If you're a master, be a good master. If you're a wife, be a good wif ... whatever it is. So, he says if you're a slave, don't worry about it. One thing that Paul didn't want was a whole lot of Christian slaves revolting. Can you imagine a Christian revolution? It wouldn't work.

You know, that's what they expected Jesus to do when He came into the world. Remember? They expected Jesus to come as the Messiah and overthrow Rome. Then Christianity would have gone down in all of history as a political movement, wouldn't it? Jesus said no. That isn't what it is. It's change on the inside. Slavery is fine if God has called you in that status. And built into the Christian righteousness pattern like leaven moving through a society is the dissolution of evil in that society as Christianity penetrates.

Notice what he says in verse 21 at the end of the verse. "If you maybe free, then use it rather." But I'm not saying you've got to stay a slave. Now some people use this passage, they turn the end of the verse around to mean, even if you have liberty offered to you, turn it down. Boy, if you were saved a slave, you are a slave. No. No, I think what he's saying here is if you're saved a slave, then don't worry it but if freedom comes along, grab it. And you know, in Rome there was the provision, in fact marry owners kept a nest egg and they added money into it all the time until finally it got to the place where the guy could buy his own freedom.

So the definition wasn't that necessarily oppressive, in some cases there were cruel masters but you could be a slave and it could be tolerable. Don't worry about it. But if your freedom comes, use it. And this just means God's giving you that and taking you another step.

There's a good illustration of this in the little book of Philemon. Philemon is an interesting little book, right after Titus and before the book of Hebrews. And Philemon was a Christian man in Colossae. He had a slave among other slaves. He was probably a very wealthy man. One of his slaves was named Onesimus. And Onesimus decided he wanted his freedom. So Onesimus stole some stuff out of Philemon's house, packed his little bag and hustled off to Rome ... and what he was figuring to lose himself in the mob at Rome. And while he was mingling with the crowd at Rome, he raninto a very interesting man by the name of Paul which began a very dramatic transformation in the life of Onesimus.

In verse 10, Paul says, "I beseech you for my son Onesimus whom I have begotten in my bonds." Now we don't know how Paul was undoubtedly a prisoner here and somehow he got in connection with Onesimus and led Onesimus to Christ. Onesimus became a Christian and, Oh, Paul loved him. In verse 11 he says, "This guy was profitable and I really cared for him and he was important to me." But one day, Paul and Onesimus were kind of getting down to it and they sat down and Onesimus said, "Hey, Paul, I've got to tell you something. I don't know how this is going to go over but I'm ... I'm a runaway slave."

Well, that must have really crushed Paul. What was he going to do? Well, who's your master? Well, he's Philemon, you know, a Christian over at Colossae. That even made it worse. Oh well, what could Paul do? "Well, look, slavery's a rotten institution anyway, just cool it and I'll keep you here and no one will ever know. That's one thing, we'll just hide you." The other one would be, I'll send you back with a letter telling Philemon what I think of him as a slave owner. And Philemon could have been, "Dear Philemon, let all your slaves go, slavery's a rotten institution." Or, Paul could have just said no, according to this society, we have a social status of masters and slaves, you're a slave, you disobeyed the rules of society, you have to go back and make it right. And that's what he did. And he sent Onesimus back with a letter. And you know what the letter says? "Hey, Philemon, here comes your slave and he's really been great to me and I've led him to Jesus Christ, would you accept him as a brother? Would you take him back in good graces as your good slave? I think he'll serve you betterthan he's ever served you." And off hustles Onesimus with the letter.

And, you know, he had a lot to risk because slaves in those days for running away could be killed or at best they could have a brand in their head. They put a big "F" on their head for fugitivuswhich means "runaway." So he could have paid a high price. But Onesimus, now in the bonds of Christ, goes back and gives the letter and tradition tells us Philemon embraced him with open arms and they were accepted as brothers together, even though he continued to be a servant and a slave. I

Now in all of Philemon, Paul says nothing about slavery. He doesn't condemn it. He doesn't tell Philemon to set Onesimus free. He just accepts the social status that Onesimus was in and knew he could go back and be a slave and it wouldn't have any effect of his Christian life.

Now, some people have criticized Paul for not attacking the system of slavery#, but the point is this, people, if Christianity had encouraged the ending of slavery, then Christianity would have been seen as a political revolution and Christians would have been killed in a revolution. And I would add another thing. If Christian slaves had started to disrupt society, then the major issue would have been lost, the issue of faith in Jesus Christ.

Now you know what's happened in America. Every time Christianity, quote/unquote, attaches itself to a social movement, the message of Christianity gets totally lost. Given the Christian faith, emancipation is bound to happen. But the time was not ripe. So Paul says don't concern yourself with your earthly state. Don't concernyourself with a situation that is superficial. The major issue is internal.

Now let's look at verse 22. And here he draws a very interesting paradox that is not really totally understandable if you keep pushing it out#, but in simplicity, it's very clear. "He that is called in the Lord being a servant, or a slave, is the Lord's free man." He that is called in the Lord while ... he that is saved while he's a slave is really the Lord's free man. Do you understand that? I mean, what does it matter if you're a human slave or a physical slave if you're freed from sin, freed from Satan, freed from hell, freed from the curse of the law? I mean, what does it matter that you have to serve somebody else? I mean, you're really God's free man.

And on the other hand, he says, "Likewise, he that is called being free," in other words, somebody who gets saved while he's a free man, "becomes Christ's slave." All he's simply saying is you maybe a slave physically, you're a free man spiritually and you may be a free man physically, but you're a slave spiritually. In other words, he just kind of shows the fact that nothing really matters on the surface. It doesn't matter whether you're physically bound or free, it only matters that you're both physically bound and free in the paradox of Christianity.

Do you understand that paradox? That as a Christian you're the servant of Jesus Christ and yet as a Christian you're free from the law, from sin, from Satan, from hell, from the curse. Do you understand that paradox? That's what he's saying. Christ has totally set you free to be His servant. Don't worry aboutthe superficial situation you're in.

Now he takes it a step further in verse 23. He says, "You are bought with a price, be not ye the slaves of men." Don't ever again consider yourself a slave. You may be a physical slave but you don't go around saying I've got to get rid of the bondage of my slavery." Listen, you're not really a slave to men. If you happen to be a Christian slave, you're a Christian slave because God has you there and He bought you with a price and you're His slave, His servant.

And that's what I read you earlier in Ephesians 6, that when you serve your master, do it heartily as unto whom? The Lord. You're really serving God. You ought to obey your employer as if he were Jesus Christ incarnate. That's his point. If I am a slave, my service is to God. If I am free, my service is to God. It doesn't matter. He bought me with a price.

What was the price? First Peter 1:18 and 19 tells us that the price was the precious blood of Jesus Christ as of a lamb without blemish, without spot. You're really God's servant. Don't worry about externals.

He repeats the principle in verse 24. "Brethren, let every man in whatever state, or status or situation he is called, there abide with God." However it is that you've been called, however it is that you've been set apart, whatever status in life you've been allotted by the divine sovereignty of God, maintain it, hold on to it. God has you there for a reason. And conversion is no signal for a man to leave his occupation, for a man to leave his wife, for a man automatically to panic and want to get married, no. All of life is God's, we are all His servants. He places us in all different positions and we are to serve Him in those positions. Let's concentrate on spiritual service, concentrate on obedience and let the social thing take care of itself as the leaven of righteousness willpermeate a society and bring about change.

So, Paul says to the Corinthians, don't make your Christianity the cause for the hatred of the world. If the world is going to reject, make sure they're rejecting with the knowledge of Jesus Christ, not rejecting out of the fear of a political play that you may be making on their society. Let's pray together.

Father, as we have shared in these brief moments and now our time is gone, we recognize that You have repeated again and again this principle and yet we struggle, all of us, in our hearts to make application of it in our lives. For some, the application may be very clear, there may be a person here who's single and who feels even that such singleness is a gift of God and maybe being pressured into being married. May it not be, Father, that they would expect that there is any greater blessing in marriage. There may be some who are married, use perhaps their married to an unsaved person, may be Father, and because being pressured to leave that person and not to abide. Father, may they realize that their Christianity is no reason to leave. There may be some who have certain employment and they feel that because they're now Christians they can't be under somebody, or they can't endure the position of servitude that they have, may they realize that even as a slave they can be just as good a Christian as anyone in a position of authority would be. And, Father, perhaps there are even some who would want to turn in their Jewishness, or even the opposite, we pray, Lord, that that would not be the case but that they would be thankful for whatever statethey had racially and nationally in the past that will enable them to reach the people that are a part of their life and heritage. Father, help us to realize that as Paul said in whatsoever state I am, there with to be content is the rule that should govern our lives. And when some change does come, when freedom comes, we can use that as well. When for those that are single, marriage comes, then that's something that God has in mind we can use that as well. But, Father, may we always major on the majors, not on the externals, but on the things that are concerned with obeying Your commandments and keeping Your truth that the world may be brought to repentance and to the acknowledging of the truth as they see in in us we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

Reasons for Remaining Single, Part 1: Because of the World

Now this morning, turn again to I Cor. 7. We are, for our guests, happy to say that you are catching us in the midst of a most exciting and interesting study, we're going through the book of First Corinthians. This is a very practical book which deals with problems among Christians, problems in the church of Christ. Chapter seven deals with problems surrounding the issue of marriage. This morning as we come to verses 25 to 40, we come to a very interesting section that I've entitled, "Reasons for remaining single."

Now that is an unusual title, and it's a very unusual topic, a very unusual section of Scripture. If you came this morning as a visitor expecting to hear some great theological treatise, or maybe you came kind of waiting to hear how you become a Christian, well, we'll be happy to tell you that personally afterwards, but this morning we're going to approach the text that is before us, and a very, very unusual text it is, dealing with reasons for remaining single.

Now we're not--at Grace Community Church--convinced that marriage is bad. I'm married, and most all of the people in this church are either married or anxious about it. We're not against marriage. But, the Bible is very balanced in the area of marriage, and it recognizes that for some people, singleness is better than marriage because God has gifted them to be single, and the church must maintain a balance in understanding this. Even though Peter calls marriage the "grace of life," and even though Paul exalts marriage as the picture of Christ's relation to the church, and Paul states even that marriage is the norm, even though our Lord Jesus Christ acknowledged the strength of the marriage bond in Matt. 19, it is still true that for some people that singleness is best. The norm of marriage, that is presented throughout Scripture, is not to make us think that anybody single is abnormal. It isn't so. One Bible teacher said, if you are single, you are incomplete. Is that true? I don't think it's true. I don't think it's true that single people are losers, single people are misfits, single people are incomplete, abnormal, and yet I think that our society, at least our Christian society tends to think that.

As soon as your daughters get to the age of 19 or 20, we begin to panic if they don't have a boyfriend. As soon as our sons get to around 20 to 25 we really get panicky, and if they get over 25 and haven't found a girl, we begin to wonder whether or not they have some secret problem that even the parents don't know about. Or, maybe there's some kind of personality quirk that only manifests itself when they get around girls. This is what destroys the possibility of any such relationship. We tend to push our children into marriage. The first consideration that we have toward our children is we've got to find you the right person to marry, and we force the issue, and very frequently marriages turn out to be disastrous because they are the result of prodding and pushing from parents, rather than the design of the will of God. What we're going to see this morning and probably next week, because I doubt whether we'll get through all of this, is that if the father was really wise, and we'll implicate a mother in that, rather than beginning to look for a partner for his child, he would start first of all considering that the best thing for that child might be that that child remain single--that that would be the starting ground and marriage would be the second choice. Now maybe that's a little different than you thought, but this whole chapter will support that.

Now the Bible does teach about being single. In fact in I Cor. 7 we have already seen three basic principles about being single, number one, being single is good. Verse I of chapter seven says it is good for a man not to touch a woman. We saw that the phrase to "touch" a woman means to have a sexual relationship. It is good for a man to be celibate. It is good for a person not to marry.

First of all then, to be single is good. Secondly, to be single is a gift. God gifts certain people with the charasmata of singleness. Verse 7, every man has his proper gift of God. One after this manner and another after that. I say therefore, to the unmarried and widowed, it is good for them if they abide even as 1. It's good, if you have the gift, to remain single. Thirdly, we've learned that your marital status has no relationship to salvation. When you become a Christian it is not incumbent upon you immediately to get married. Nor is it incumbent upon you immediately to get single and dump your wife or your husband in order that you might have greater devotion to God. And this is precisely the conflict in Corinth. The Jews were saying you must get married and the Gentiles were saying you must be celibate, or ascetic, and the Apostle Paul says no. Let every man abide in the same calling in which he was called, verse 20. Whatever situation you were in, verse 24, says, when you were saved, stay there. If you're single, that's good; if you're married, that's good. All right.

Now, we've learned that singleness is good; singleness is a gift, and if you don't have the gift don't try to be single you'll only frustrate yourself. Thirdly, singleness is not necessarily related to salvation. You don't have to get married immediately upon being saved, and you don't have to get unmarried immediately upon being saved. You can be equally surrendered whether your single or married.

Now, in verses 25 to 40 Paul expands on this basic presentation. The Corinthians were asking questions according to verse one of chapter seven, concerning the things about which you wrote, Paul is replying to direct questions they were asking, and the question he's answering here is "should they get married." Is it better to be single to serve God with a devoted heart and a single mind, or is it necessary to get married like the Jewish traditionalists were saying in order to fulfill the will of God. The Jews said you had to be married or you would violate God's command to replenish the earth, and the Gentiles coming out of the philosophical asceticism would say it's better to be single and you can devote yourselves totally to God. Paul is saying both are good. Some have the gift of singleness, and if they do, that's good. Some do not have the gift of singleness, and it's better for them to marry, and that's good as well.

Notice being single and being married has no relation to spirituality. Single people are not more spiritual, neither are married ones. But now, in order to try to prod those people who have the gift of singleness to use that gift, and not to get married, he adds verses 25 to 40, and this is an encouragement to single people, to see whether or not God has not given them a gift to maintain and stay single.

Now, notice verse 25 and we'll start at that point. Now, concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my judgment as one who has obtained mercy of the Lord to be trustworthy. Now, concerning parthenoi, the word virgin, to whom does this refer? Well, there has been all different opinions offered by strange and weird groups, but there isn't any real difficulty in interpreting- the word, the word simply means virgin. Parthenoisimple means virgin, someone who is unmarried. Now, since it is used with the feminine article, it is referring to unmarried girls. Virgin girls is the objective in the statement, "now concerning virgins." That's precisely who he has in mind. I might add that once in Rev. 14:4 the word is used to refer to bachelor, but here it's the feminine article he has in mind single girls. Concerning single, girls, that is unmarried women, unmarried virgin daughters, I have no commandment of the Lord. But, now, when the Lord settled a question with a direct statement, Paul said so.

For example, in verse 10, he says, "The Lord said, let not the wife depart from her husband," and he's quoting Jesus. He says here now, "regarding unmarried girls, "regarding single daughters, "I have no command of Jesus:' He didn't say anything, and he means by that, I can't quote any recorded words of Christ. Jesus didn't say anything about this. When the Lord stated a command he said it. When the Lord gave no command Paul also said that. In verse 12 he said, to the rest speak I not the Lord. In other words, here's something now that I'm going to speak. It's not less authoritative; it's just that the Lord didn't say anything about it. So he can't quote Christ. So he says now the Lord had nothing to say about this, but, I give my judgment, notice it in verse 25, and not just as an ordinary man, but as one that has obtained mercy of the Lord to be trustworthy, or to be believable. I am giving my judgment.

Now, does that mean that this is Paul's opinion? Not really, not at all. You see, there are issues which the Lord spoke about, and there are issues which the Lord did not speak about. Now, notice this: of the ones that the Lord did not speak about, the apostles often spoke. Now sometimes when the apostles spoke, they gave absolute, authoritative dictums, but sometimes they only gave guidelines because there could be no absolutes.

Now, in this section he is saying, now look, I am giving you a guide line, I am giving you good advice. Incidentally, it is not just Paul's advice, it is the advice of the Holy Spirit through him, but there cannot be an absolute. He cannot say, all of you must be single, or all of you must be married, because for some there is marriage and for some there is singleness. And so he says, let me give you some advice as t o the general principle to apply in each case. I'm giving you my judgment on this. I'm giving you general guidelines, and they are not independent of the Holy Spirit. In verse 40 he says, in the terms of our use of English, "and I consider, not "I think so, but I consider that I also have the Spirit of God, and it's sarcastic because those people who are confusing them were saying, well, we have the mind of the Spirit, and Paul is simply saying, I consider that I have the mind of the Spirit, too. So, if the Spirit of God was behind it, this is Paul's counsel, general principles, to govern the whole attitude of believers towards singleness.

Now concerning virgin daughters, there is no direct quote of the Lord I can give, but I'm going to give you my opinion, or my judgment, my assessment, not just as an average man, but as one that has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. It isn't just the counsel of a wise man, but of one who had obtained mercy of the Lord. What does that mean? One who was worthy of confidence. One, who by special mercy of God, had been given an unusual insight into truth. I'm speaking to you as one who is pistos, that's the word translated here "faithful." believable, trustworthy, that is a frequent use of that word in the New Testament, worthy of confidence. You can trust my judgment. God has given me by his mercy, unusual insights into truth that you can trust. Paul felt himself indebted to the mercy of Christ for those inward truths that he had. Christ by his grace had made him a believable preacher, had made him an authoritative apostle. And so he's saying you Corinthians can accept wisdom here, you can accept these principles, you can them with confidence because Christ has given me unusual mercy. He has been unusually merciful to me in those inward graces which allow me to speak the truth.

Now let me summarize what he means by verse 25. In regard to single daughters, I have no absolute command for every case. Every case is different. But, through God's grace he has put me in a position to give you good advice, and that advise is believable, and you can take that advice and apply it to every situation. Now let's look at verse 26. '1 suppose therefore that this good." Stop there. And then go to the end of the verse, I say that it is good for a man so to be. I suppose therefore that this is good.

Now, please, the word "suppose" is misleading again. The word "suppose" isn't Paul saying, well, let's see. I suppose, No. Nomidzoin the Greek, means "I hold," or "I consider." It is not a guess, but a conviction. I hold the conviction that this is good. What is good? That it is good for a man so to be. So to be what? A virgin, unmarried.

And here he adds the concept of a man to the feminine form in verse 25. It is good to be unmarried. It is good to be single, he's saying. It is good to be an unmarried virgin. We see that idea already in 7:1, and in 7:8. Twice there he says it's good to be single. To be single isn't wrong, to have the gift. That's why it's ludicrous for the church to make misjudgments on single people. And, I think especially in our day -today when there is just a plethora of information coming out about the family. The family is fine, and we must concentrate on the family, and there's a proper emphasis there, obviously, it's a high, high emphasis it has to be made, but at the same time there must be the balance and considerate on of what it is to be single, and still have identity and acceptance on an equal basis and spiritual life as anybody who's married, and not to be particularly thought abnormal. If you have the gift, it is a good thing, don't seek to marry. It is a good thing to remain single.

Now that's Paul's advice and it comes from the Holy Spirit. Now Paul then supports that idea with five reasons for remaining single. We'll go as far as we can this morning and see where e get. Reason number one for staying single, and some of you who are married may identify with these, and look back and say I knew that I should have stayed single. Others of you who are very concerned about the social pressure to get married may realize that that social pressure is just that, social pressure, and not the will of God. And you'll reconsider that pursuit in your life. For whatever purposes God has we pray that He'll make application to your life. All right.

Number one reason to stay single is the pressure of the system. The pressure of the system. Notice verse 26. 1 suppose therefore that this is good. What is good? That it is good for a man so to be. To be what? To be unmarried. Why? Because of the present distress. Do you see it in the middle of verse 26. Because of the present distress. On account of the immediate necessity, might be a more literal translation. On account of the immediate necessity. Because of the present distress.

Now the word anagkenhere has a secondary meaning which I think is very helpful in explaining the passage, and that is that it means violence. The Apostle Paul is saying, incidentally it is used to speak of violence and is translated best that way in Luke 21:23, there talking of the violence of the Great Tribulation. It refers to violence in I Thess. 3:7, II Cor. 6: and II Cor. 12:10. The same word refers to violence, and is best translated violence. Well, here, I think that that is also the best translation. It is better to be single because of the immediate violence. And what did he mean by this? Well, Kittel says that this denotes the tensions that exist between the new creation in Christ and the old cosmos. Tracing the use of this word through the New Testament.% Kittel comes up with the idea that when a person becomes a Christian he immediately gets into a violent conflict with the system.

Now Paul is speaking of the violence and the distress, and the pain and the suffering that can come to anyone who professes Christ. It is difficult to be a Christian, Paul is saying, and it is especially difficult to be a married Christian because of the distress and the violence of the system. Now Paul had had many experiencesthat would help us to understand this. Paul would go into a town and they would beat him. He would go into another town and they would stone him. He would go into another town and they would give him strifes with a whip. He would go into another town and they would put him in jail. On and on and on through the man's life there was pain and suffering, pain and suffering.

Now, can you imagine the intensity with which that problem would be magnified if the Apostle Paul had had a dear wife at home and a group of little ones--apostles, running around the house. Well, that would have been much more complicated, and everything that Paul endured, he would have had in the back of his mind, but if it happens to me, then who'd take care of my wife? And who would take care of my children? And how can I keep doing this while my wife sits home in fear, and the constant edge of heartbreak, and my children in fear that their father will never return. I must be home taking care of them, nurturing them and raising them. That's my primary obligation. You see in the violence of the world in which Paul lived, marriage was a terrible encumbrance to somebody who was a Christian--at least in the sense of the ministry that he had. The Corinthian Christians would well remember what the Corinthian Jews had try to do to Paul the very time he came to their city.

Now Paul is saying because--notice this--the present, or the immediate violence. Paul was anticipating something here. There is a violence that is going to come when the wholesale pagan persecution breaks out, and Pauls can see it coming. He knew that a girl married, a guy married, and raising children might suffer the heartbreaking losses that can only come to those who have a family, when the persecution broke out. He knew from his own life, as I have said, that it was good that no wife, and no children needed to weep, and live with broken, fearful hearts every time he went somewhere. Hard times were coming to the church, and Paul was aware of it. The change in the pagan attitude toward Christians was in the wind.

You say well how did he know? Well, in the first place Jesus had predicted it. In John chapter 15, Jesus said as much when he promised the disciples that they were going to suffer persecution. If the world hate you, you know it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Now the world hates you is pretty clear. Down in 16:1 he says, don't be surprise when you're offended. They'll put you out of the synagogues; the time come that whosoever kills you will think he does God service. Jesus predicted it would come. Paul could see it on t e horizon. For example, let me just give you a little history. The first fearful persecution broke out under Nero. Historians tell us that the barbarities inflicted on the Christians during that first persecution were such as excited the sympathy of even the Romans themselves. Nero refined cruelty upon cruelty, and continued all manner and style of persecution. He had some Christians sews up in the skins of wild beasts then turned over to dogs to be torn to pieces. Others he dressed in garments that were made stiff with wax. He fixed those people to trees and then lit them like candles to light his garden. This occurred through the early centuries of the Roman Empire. Eraspus according to Fox's Book of Martyrs, was one of those martyred in the first persecution, and Eraspus was the chamberlain or the treasurer of the city of Corinth. What that tells us is that the persecution of Nero extended to Corinth, and took the life of one of the men they named in the Bible, one of the Christians of Corinth.

Now Paul knew that this was coming to Corinthians He could see it on the horizon, and in view of this he says my advice is if you have the gift, stay single. And, people, keep in mind that all of this advice is only to those who have the gift, because to force somebody to be single who doesn't have the gift is to force them to burn with desire all their life, and that isn't accomplishing anything, but if you have the gift, he is saying, that is the basic supposition of all of this. Don't get married, because of the pressure that is coming, the pressure of the system against the believer. Verse 27, are you bound to a wife? Cease not to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife, seek not to be bound.

In other words I'm not saying get unmarried. I don't want any misunderstanding there. Don't divorce your wife. In fact in verse ten he says let not the wife depart from her husband. Whatever the distress was, the married--must endure it. But if you have a choice, and you have the gift, don't seek marriage. Stay the way you are,verse 27 says.

Now the question that comes to mind here is how does this translate into 1976? Keep in mind that Paul is talking about those who have the gift. We have people today who have the gift of singleness. What does it mean to them to know the present distress? The pressure of the system? Are we facing in our world a time of distress? Are we facing in our world a time of violence like they did then? Are we facing a time of persecution? Some say we are. According o our Lord Jesus in Matt. 24 and 25, in his teaching on the Mount of Olives regarding the end time, he said the end of the age will be characterized by war, cold and hot war, be characterized by famine, disease, earthquake and persecution. And certainly the worst of that would come to pass in the period known as the Great Tribulation, after the church is taken out of the world but it seems apparent that some of those things are fast becoming a reality before the rapture of the church. Over-population, pollution, crime, immorality, false prophets, terrible sin, all kinds of things are already on the horizon and they are unavoidable in our lifetime and if Paul was right when he wrote Timothy that evil men will get worse and worse, then it can only get worse. And he was right. At best it is an insecure explosive world.

There is an interesting book entitled, "The Year 2000" written by Herman Kahn and Anthony Weiner and in it this is what they predict fox the year 2,000. It sounds like they've been reading Matt. 24 except they're not Christians. This is what they predict: evasion and war, civil strife and revolution, famine, disease, persecution by despotism, that is by dictatorship, national disasters and a depression or economic stagnation, etc. These are the predictions of those people who look at the world analytically. That's precisely what Matt. 24 says, it's a rough world, and being married only complicates it greatly because of the problem of caring for your wife and husband and caring for your children. So, Paul says it's a pressure world. All of the end time, from the time Jesus first arrived until His return, all of that time is a pressure system, set against the Christian. We are to anticipate suffering through all that time, the hatred of the world, and so Paul says if you have the gift and you don't burn with desire, physically and sexually, if the Spirit of God has given you the gift of singleness, then be content, because of the pressure of the system that is here and will yet come in a more fearful display of violence in the future. And, I think all of us would agree that for the Christian the nearer we get to the end, the higher the price to pay for ourfaith. That has to be there. If evil men do get worse and worse, and if apostasy runs wild, and if the mystery of inequity is already working and moving toward the evil of the tribulation, then Satan is going to battle all the more stringently and strongly for the end and persecution will rise, and many will pay high prices, and he's saying if you're single, just stay that way, if you have the gift. You have less encumbrances. The second thing, stay single number one because of the pressure of the system set against Christianity. Number two, because of the problems of the flesh. Remain single because of the problems of the flesh.

Now, verse 28 identifies this for us. But, and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. He wants to make sure we understand that it isn't a sin to get married. That is not what he is saying. He doesn't want any misunderstandings. He is not against marriage. Marriage is not an evil thing; marriage is not a sinful thing. It is still a majority state, it s still the design of God, it is still a beautiful thing, it is still a wholesome thing, don't misunderstand me. If you marry you don" t s in. If a virgin marries, she doesn't sin. So bachelors and maiden daughters can marry without sinning. Nevertheless, such shall have trouble in the flesh and I would spare you from that. Such would have trouble in the flesh and I'd spare you from that.

Now this is very interesting. Notice the statement, "such will have trouble in the flesh." Such is masculine in its gender and that would gather up all cases, not just virgins but bachelors as well. Trouble. That's an interesting word. You know one of the things that occurs when you get married? Trouble. Trouble occurs in marriage. You say, oh--in our marriage? Yes. In my marriage. Oh, can't believe it. It's true. Trouble occurs. You say well where does it come from? Trouble comes from what? The flesh. Do you know what we have realized in our marriage? Both of us are sinners. My wife is a sinner.

Now I'm not getting specific, but I'm just giving you general truth. My wife is a sinner. You know what's ever worse than that? I'm a sinner. And you know what happens when you put two sinners together? Trouble will happen. And then when you have a whole lot of little sinners come into your house, everyone of our children are depraved. Have you recognized that about your children? You know, as we were talking about Melinda yesterday, Melinda is especially depraved. She's only two, but do you know that a first response to any difficult situation is to lie. It's just automatic to lie. And now I'm in the process of trying to teach her that that isn't the approach. It's just automatic. Boy, we have six people in our house, all of whom are totally depraved. Now you know what that spells? Trouble. Trouble in the flesh. Any kind of marriage is going to bring about trouble. Now flesh. What does flesh mean? Sarcs. This is the lower nature.

Now let me give you a simple definition. This is our humanness. This is our humanness. And it is humanness in marriage that makes for trouble. Even though the Holy Spirit wants perfect unity, humanness creates problems. He has in mind the problems that come from our humanness, the ever-present troubles of married life. Now what about this idea of trouble. Let's -- this is the word thlipsisin the Greek and it means literally pressure. It comes from the Greek word meaning to pressed together and was used of squashing grapes. Now, you know, marriage is a pressure. It's a pressing together. And, in that kind of pressing together humanness is going to rear its head". You notice how--the kind of trouble humanness brings?

Let me tell you some of the things a humanness creates: anger-did you ever have anger in your marriage, in your home? Oh, now and then. Selfishness. Do you ever have that? How about stupidity. What ever made you do that? How could anybody overdraw the bank account by that much. Just plain stupidity. That's humanness. And the other partner says, boy, you know, how do I know what you've done with anything else now I can't trust you with that. Forgetfulness. This is the third year that you've forgotten my birthday. That creates problems. Dishonesty. You don't tell the truth. Secret sin--pride. Pride makes us build ego walls and then people can't get to us. Then the communication is cut off. Thoughtlessness. Overindulgence.

You know, in a home, people say, if I could just get married that would solve my problems. My friend, if you get married all that's going to do is magnify your problems because somebody else has to live with them. And that's humanness and that's part of the problem of being married. And that's why the most miserable people in the world are not single. Did you get that? The most miserable people in the world are married. In a marriage that doesn't work, Paul Sailhammer says, and I quote, "the only thing worse than waiting is wishing you had." Misery comes, basically, in marriage at a much higher level than in being single because you're slammed against this other person and everything about you that's wrong is just getting thrown back in your face, and you're constantly having to adjust. AM marriages have difficulties. They're just plain trouble in the flesh. Hardships, sacrifice, because two people are human and children are human, and they add more depravity to the scene and it all becomes complex. If God has given you the gift of singleness, stay that way, and avoid the problems of humanness that come in a marriage. Don't look at marriage as the solution to your problems. It is the magnification of them.

You know we all say marriage never changes anything; it just intensifies everything you are and makes somebody else have to live with it. If you're going to solve your problems you're going to solve them apart from your ma marriage. I've had people say, you know, I've got this tremendous sexual problem and desires, and it's to the place of sinfulness, if I could only get married. You know what happens when they get married? Nothing changes that. They still have those same lusts and evil desires, even though there is a sexual fulfillment in marriage, if that thing is a sin problem that hasn't been dealt with there will be just as much illicit lust in the marriage as there was before you got married. And other people say, well, I'm so lonely. If only I could--if I could just get married and have somebody.

And, you know what, there are plenty of somebodies in the world that you could know and love and not be lonely, and usually a super lonely person will get married and draw walls around themselves and be super lonely even though they're married, and they'll make somebody else lonely. Marriage is not the solution to your problems. Marriage is the solution of one thing for the Christian, and only one. And, that is the need to be obedient to God's will. If God wants you married, then get married. To the right person. Only if that's clearly God's will. But, if you have the gift of singleness, you avoid the special problems of the flesh that come with marriage, as well as the pressure of the system. Third thing: the third reason for remaining single is the passing of the world. Pressure of the system, the problems of the flesh, and the passing of the world. Look at verse 29.

Now, I'm going to read 29 to 31 because it all goes together: "But this I say, brethren, the time is short." Literally the time is shortened. The time is shortened. "It remains that both they that have wives be as though they had none. They that weep as though they wept not. They that rejoice as though they rejoiced not. They that buy as though they possess not, and they that use this world as not abusing it the schema-the state of this world is passing away." Now, what is he saying? He is saying, hey, marriage is part of the schemaof this world, and it is what? Passing away. Marriage has no relation--listen to this--marriage has no relation to permanent eternal interests. I know this bothers a lot of young people because they get married--a couple asked me this recently, brand new newly weds, and they said if the Lord comes real soon will we still be married in heaven. I said no. That was very disappointing. They did not like that thought. And, of course there are others who have been married a long time who are waiting for the rapture because they'll cease to be married. But, marriage--there is no marriage in heaven. Not at all. I know the Mormons have a very sophisticated complex deal about eternal marriages; it's just so much hog-wash. There are no marriages in heaven. Marriage is a part of this passing scheme.

Now that's what he's saying. It is like human emotion. It is like human possession. It is like human pleasure. It's all part of this system, and gone. The time is shortened, kairos, the appointed time. Kairosmeans the set time, the appointed time. God has set out an appointed time. It is shortened, it is rolled up. The allotted time in this world is brief. James says your life is a vapor; right? It appears for a little time and vanishes away. Who is able to say what about tomorrow? Who knows what tomorrow's going to bring. What is your life? Brief. A brief, flickering candle that is gone with the first breath of God's divine wind. James 1:10 says the rich in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass, he shall pass away. For the sun has no sooner risen with a burning heat that it withers the grass, its flower falls. The grace of the fashion of it perishes, so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways Life is short even for the rich. I Peter 1:24, all flesh is like grass, the glory of man like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls away. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, for the world passes away. I John 2:15-17. You see, marriage is a part of a passing system. If you have a gift for singleness, then that part of the passing system you don't need. It is God's design, people--this is what it's saying here it is God's design that we attach lightly to earthly things. That those who are married, even, be as though they were not married.

In other words, it doesn't mean you mistreatyour wife or you don t fulfill your obligation. No, no. The Bible is clear about that But, it is that you remember. That it is the reality that is eternal that matters. Col. 3:2 adds a word that I thin* is important: love your wife's, husbands. But, listens to what Col. 3:2 says, "set your affections on things" what? "Above, and not on things on the earth." You can love your wife and at the same time keep your priorities and perspectives in the proper way. Now Paul gives five examples here, of the Christian's freedom from the passing world. Marriage, weeping, rejoicing, buying, and worldly pleasure. They're all part of the passing system.

Marriage, for example, he says in verse 29, 1 remains that those who have wives be as though they had none. Don't attach yourselves totally to marriage. That's just part of the passing world. Luis Palau was saying that you know one of the things that's so difficult today in the world is that people have become so super attached to marriage that you can't get them to do anything in serving the Lord. He says sometimes on the mission field we try to get a couple of missionaries to go maybe on a month special mission, an they don't want to go because they don't want to leave their wives, they say. And he says there has got to be a balance here. There's got to be some kind of balance between love your wife and care for your family, on the one hand, and we've really pushed that to the limit, and on the other hand recognizing that marriage is to be treated lightly as an earthly thing. And, that what we do for eternal Values is what's really consequential.

Listen, marriage is going to give way to heavenly family life with Ike God the Father, Christ the husband, and all believers the wife; right? Well, you say, what does he mean by weeping? "And they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice, as though they rejoice not. What he is saying is, don't get attached to human emotion either. Don't rise and fall with what's going on in your world. Don't be overburdened by what happens.

You know there are some people, for example, who--somebody in their family dies and they crack up. They fall apart. They're worthless. That's ridiculous for a Christian. Why? Because that's just a temporal thing. You're going to spend all eternity with them anyway. How ridiculous it is for so often when a wife loses a husband she just folds up her tent and steals away into the night. That's the end of her. Or a man who loses his wife and it's all over with. He can't adjust himself. Why? Because he has not treated marriage lightly, and he can't control the weeping that comes, Don't get overdone with human emotion. Listen, when we get to heaven God's going to wipe away all tears. What about rejoicing? Well, what he means there is don't get too happy with the system either. Don't get overjoyed with what makes the world happy. Do not be a victim of the world's emotion. That's what he's saying. Don't get overtied to the world's relationship, and don't get overtied to the world's emotion. You're another worldly creature.

Now, for the fourth one. Buying, at the end of verse 30. They that buyeth though they possess not. Don't get over-occupied with the world's commodities. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, I John 2:15 says, and he's simply saying, look, you're in the world, and you're going to be a part of it, but tie loosely to its relationships, loosely to its emotions, and loosely to its commodities. Listen to me people, that third one is a tough one; isn't it? I'm telling you, some of us have got almost everything in this world that we have financially, and almost all our mental preoccupation tied in to the world's commodities. We're more worried about our bank account than we are about our spiritual life. We're more worried about how we decorate our houses, and how fancy our cars are than we are about spiritual realities and eternal truths, add we are not attached lightly to the world. We are attached heavily to the system. And, so when the system begins to crack add we begin to lose things, we can't handle it. Set your affection on things above. Marriage is a passing thing. Even emotion is a passing thing. Human commodities are a passing thing.

Lastly he talks about human pleasure, and that's using the world, in verse 31. That is describing human pleasure, worldly pleasure. Worldly pleasure--some of us live for worldly pleasure. Live to have a good time. Live to do this, and to do that, and to travel here and to go here, and we're so busy enjoying everything in this world that we can't be much use to God. We talk so much about leisure, and you know we all need a rest once in a while. We talk about retirement. We talk about--we've got to get away, and we want to see things and do things and enjoy our life is so short.

Listen people, I wonder whether the ApostI6 Paul really looked at life like that. Life is not ever to be the for Christian a constant vacation, is it? It's not just to be worldly pleasure. We are to spend ourselves on those things that are going to have eternal consequence. I would rather die at 40 and have used life MY for God than live to 80 and haven't done nothing. I think it matters that we invest ourselves in God's kingdom. And he's saying, attach lightly to the preoccupation of the world. Well, it's very difficult to divorce ourselves.

You know, we're getting sold a bill of goods about go here and see this and be that and buy this vehicle so you can travel here, and go here and do this, and look at this wonderful new pleasure, and this will make your life more comfortable, and get really wrapped up in that whole preoccupation with pleasure. Paul is emphasizing the passing things of life, one of which is marriage. And he says the fashion, or the schema, the external present state of things is in the processing of passing away.

Now, notice what his conclusion is, verse 31, don't abuse it. What does he mean? Don't overdo your identification with the world. Use the world, but don't use it to excess. Be merry, and enjoy your marriage and love your wife, and give yourselves to one another, and do all you canto make that marriage everything, but don't let it get out of perspective so that all of a sudden it becomes everything, and you're not any use to God. And it's fine to be sympathetic. Paul says weep for those that weep, in Rom. 12:15, and he says rejoice with those that rejoice, rejoice always, he says in Philippians. And, it's fine to have all of these things, but don't ever let them get beyond don't overdo it. That's what he means, abuse it. Because a new schemais coming-a new world. Don't overvalue human relations. Don't overvalue emotions, possessions, pleasures, above its true worth. Listen to me, marriage can be a detraction from spiritual reality. Sorrow can be a distraction from spiritual reality. I've known some people so sorrowing, so sad, that they can't even enjoy the experienced' of the Holy Spirit. So can joy, so can possessions, so can pleasure.

Listen, the sons and daughters of the King should deal with marriage under the limitations of their relation to the King, whatever He wills. You should never pursue marriage outside the government of God, and you should never abuse it, so that it becomes the preoccupation. Concentrate on the eternal.

Now what's Paul saying? This is easier to do when you're single. It's easier when you're single. Why? Because you have not that potential sorrow of the death of somebody that you love in your family. You have not that preoccupation with marital life, family live. You have not that preoccupation with purchasing goods that everybody in your family wants.' You know one of the ways that Satan tempts me to materialism, is through everybody in my family. Ah, dad, I want this. Daddy, can I have this? Honey, why can't we get that? And then I say it, sometimes, I think we ought to get this. And everybody's coming at it from all the commodities angle. And it gets--my son wants a pair of shoes the other day, and he didn't want any pair of shoes. He wanted a pair of shoes, like he wanted. But I couldn't find them. After I had spent about three hours looking for a pair of shoes, I said this is infringing on the time for the work of the Kingdom. He says huh? I said what's with the pair of shoes--who needs them; right? Just get something on your feet. We don't care--no, dad, I've got to have a pair of shoes. Praise the Lord--I found them. I found them for $11.99. But it's very hard when you're married to not be encumbered by t I he kind of things that are temporal. Spend so much of your time with that.

Listen, if you have the gift of singleness, use it. Praise God for it. It's exciting. Well, if you have that gift, stay single because of the pressure of the system. It's a violent world. It isn't easy to raise children in this world. It isn't easy to have a family to care for in this world--it's going to get worse. You know because of the problems of the flesh marriage itself is trouble. And, it's trouble you don't need if God has gifted you to be single. And the world is passing anyway. Marriage is only a temporal passing relationship. And if God hasn't necessarily called you to it, there's no need for you to be married. You can just sidestep that one simple thing and have that much more devotion for the Lord. Those are practical, aren't they? I'm not done, but I'll have to wait until next week.

Let's pray. Father, we know that you've given us in our congregation, many with the gift of singleness and yet we know Lordthat isn't really singleness because they're complete in you. They're really fulfilled, and maybe much more so than some married people, who are married, and because of all the anxiety of that marriage, unable to really experience the fulfillment that you intend for them. thank you for single people who have been able to give themselves wholly to you throughout the years of the kingdom on earth in the form that it's been, faithful missionaries, teachers, workers, even in our own congregation, who have that unusual gift to remain single, devoted to you in a special way. Help us as parents, Lord, to look first maybe for that area in the lives of our children, to see if they have that gift, if that's not the way that they should go, and challenge them and encourage them to use it, fulfill the potential that is there. Lord, I want to say thank you this morning tog, for one other thing--and that is, for the privilege of studying a Scripture that hits us at every aspect of life and leaves us with instruction to cover every area. Thank you, Father, for knowing where the problems would come, anticipating them, giving us your truth. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Reasons for Remaining Single, Part 2

Take you Bible, if you will now, and let's look together at the seventh chapter of 1 Corinthians. I have had a lot of reaction to last Sunday morning's message. Some of it good. Some of it strange and different. And it's been kind of interesting, this is not an easy section and if you were here for the first time ever last Sunday, you have a rather imbalanced vi 1w. I've even had several discussions with my own wife whois wondering about my view of marriage. And a ... and my sister who gave me a terrible bad time about it.

But you have to realize that what I'm trying to do is to explain to you what 1 Corinthians 7 is saying. This is not all the teaching in the Bible on marriage. This is a balancing factor. And we've been discussing, last week and today, reasons for remaining single. It somehow has confused some people. So I hope this morning that you will understand that we are not advocating singleness for everybody. We're not saying marriage is wrong and that you shouldn't give attention to marriage. Some wives said t o m e, "Boy, m I glad my husband wasn't there last week, it would ruin our life," you know. But I hope that isn't true, I think they're being a little bit facetious at that point. But we're trying to show you what Paul is saying her in terms of reasons for remaining single.

Now let e see if I can build back into it and we'll look together at this as we continue in our study of 1 Corinthians chapter 7. The relationship that God has designed for most people is marriage. There's no question about that. The relationship that God has designed for most people is marriage. And marriage is good. Marriage is a good thing. in 1 Corinthians 7:2, right there, "Let every man have his own wife, let every woman have her own husband." This is acceptable. This is God's standard.

In Proverbs 18:22, "Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing." And it goes on to say that God looks on it with favor; marriage is a good thing.

In Jeremiah 29:6, there is a command sent out to go and take wives and beget children and tell your children to take wives and beget more children. God has established as the majority standard of life relationships, that people be married.

In 1 Timothy 4 he even says heretics will come along in the last days who deny the Lord and they will forbid marriage. But that's considered a heresy. Marriage is acceptable to God. Hebrews 13:4, "Marriage is honorable and the bed is undefiled." So, God looks very favorably on marriage.

But, for every one--marriage is not the normal. God has given some people the special gift of being single. They do not need to be married to fulfill God's will. In fact, in fulfilling God's will to the very fullest they are better if they stay single. And the reason I think this is such an important study is that the church tends to categorize single people as abnormal, and it isn't so because God has so designed it for some. Verse 7 of this chapter, "I would that all men were as I," he says, I wish everybody was single, "But every man has his proper gift, one after this manner," that is after singleness like me, "and another after that, "that is like marriage, Some are gifted for marriage and some are gifted for singleness.

Singleness is a special gift of God. Single people do not need to be looked on as if they're different, strange. abnormal, unfulfilled, unqualified f o r a certain service. Not at all. In fact, you know something, people? Single people aren't really single because they have the Holy Spirit t dwelling in them. And if you want to think about it that way, maybe they are the most complete of all because they don't need another human being to complete them. They're uniquely designed by God for function within the body of Christ.

Now in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul is dealing with issues in Corinth regarding being married or being single. The Jewish people in Corinth are saying you have to be married. Some of the Greek philosophers are saying you can be more devoted to God; you can be more spiritual by being single. Paul says that isn't even an issue, that doesn't even matter. Verse 20, he says: "Let everybody stay the way he was when he was called." Verse 24, "Let every man in whatever state he is called abide with God." Verse 27, "If you're bound to a wife, don't seek to be loosed. If you're loosed from a wife, don't seek a wife." In other words, stay married or stay single.

Either one is fine, they have no relationship to spirituality. God has given some the gift of singleness, others He desires to be married. That's just different it isn't good or bad. But that's God's design.

Now he has clearly said that for some singleness is right. But not for everybody, For some, singleness is right. He doesn't want to come down and say marriage is wonderful, marriage is everything, everybody ought to got married because that would be to ignore the f act that God wants some people single. So after having said marriage is wonderful. Fulfill your marriage. You don't have to leave your wife to be a good Christian. You don't have to do that. After saying all of that, he says, "On the other hand, on the contrary, you can be single and be totally fulfilled if you have the gift."

Now I think Paul knows that people who are single and have the gift are going to be under pressure. Because society accepts as the standard marriage and so single people tend to get pressured into getting married. There tends to be that push. And I think it comes beginningly from mom and dad who want to push their kids into marriage. And then it comes from peer pressure, everybody finds somebody. And you're sort of left out. And this pressure begins to build. You get into the church and everything is family and you have all kinds of family activities and family orientation. And single people sort of stick out and people look on them as if they belong to a sort of different dimension. And the pressure continues. And I think that what Paul is saying here is very, very important for the church to recognize that God has gifted people for being single and it is no less significant than being married. It's different. It's His plan.

Now in order to encourage people with the gift, and that's the basic premise you have to hang on to, that singleness is a gift and if you don't have the gift, get married because it won't do you any good to try to stay single and serve the Lord if all you are thinking about is marriage. It's better to marry than to burn, he says over there in verse 9. So, it's for people who have the gift. If you have the gift of singleness, Paul says, exercise it.

Now, from verse 25 to 40, he gives five reasons they ought to exercise it. Five reasons to stay single if you have the gift. Now remember, people, it's only if you have the gift. I don't have the gift and most of you don't have the gift, but if you do have the gift, here are the five reasons to encourage you to stay single.

Reason number one, and we're reviewing the first three, the pressure of the system...the pressure of the system. And he says there in verse 26, 'It's good for the present distress." It's good to be single because of the present violence. There was a persecution coming right around the corner, Paul could see it, it was only a matter of time until it would be there and he realized that married people were going to suffer much more under persecution. Why? Because wives would suffer the death of their husband. Husbands would suffer the death of their wife. Children would suffer the death of their parents. And that family ties wouldmake the pain and the nguish and the anxiety and the pressure all the greater in a persecuting situation. The bitter conflict and the terrible alternative of duty to God a d affection to the family would tear people apart. So in a difficult society, in a persecuting environment, it is better to be single, he says, if y u have the gift because you don't have that tremendous pressure that the world of persecution lays on you.

Second point, and we covered these in detail last time, I'm only reminding you the problems of the flesh. A second reason if you have the gift to remain single is the problems of the flesh. Verse 28, the middle of the verse, "Nevertheless, such shall have trouble in the flesh and I would spare you." Married people, that's fine, it's all right, you don't sin if you get married, he says in 28, but you will have trouble. And the word "flesh" means our humanness. There will be human trouble. There will be human Conflict. There will be just the plain ole problems of our humanness. And marriage frequently, usually intensifies human weakness. And if you're married, you just have trouble. You have to deal with issues in your home, with your wife, with your husband, with your children. It just adds a friction to living. Marriage isn't all that friction, it isn't all bad. It's wonderful and it's blissful when it's the way God designed it. But there will be times of difficulty.

The third reason he says to stay single if you have the gift is the passing of the world. After all, marriage is only a part of this fashion of this schema, of this world and it's all passing away anyway. He says, "It remains that they that have wives should be as though they had none, they that weep as though they weep not, and to rejoice as though they rejoice not; and they that buy as though they possess not; and they that have pleasure in the world, not abusing it, for the schema of the world is in the process of passing away."

In other words, those things are all part of the world. The world's pleasures, the world's commodities, the world's emotions and the world's relationships. And if you can be free of those things then you're just that much less attached. And we went into that last time as well. Set your affections on things above. If you're single, just think, you don't have to get totally attached to the world, totally attached to the emotions that come in close relationships in marriage, to the necessities of buying things and indulging in worldly activity.

Now I'm not saying that it's wrong to have pleasure and it's wrong to buy things or it's wrong to be emotional or it's wrong to be married, no it's just that that demands a certain kind of attachment. And it is an attachment to a passing world. There's no marriage in heaven. That's just a passing thing.

And so he simply says if you have the gift of singleness, it just means you don' need to get so engulfed in the world as a married person does. And it doesn't mean badly engulfed, it doesn't mean in the world's evil, it just means you have to, for example, buy life insurance and spend your money on that so if you die, somebody's going to be able to take care of your children. You have to save your money for their education. You have to have this medical insurance or money laid away for all the family's physical needs. You have to buy a bigger house, a bigger car, more of this and more of that because you have to support the larger group of people you have around you. You have to be sensitive to psychological needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs. There is a concentration there. There is an involvement there that marriage demands. That's all he's saying. If you have the gift of singleness and don't need to get into that then you're better to stay single.

All right then, if you have the gift of singleness, be says remain single because of the pressures of the world, the problems of the flesh, and the passing of the world. Let me give you a fourth and we'll start with verse 32 where we left off.

This fourth point supporting staying single is the preoccupation of the married. If persons stay single, he doesn't get engulfed in the preoccupation of the married. You say, "Well, what is the preoccupation of the married? What are they preoccupied with?" The answer is each other. Look at verse 32, "But I would have you without care." Now what he means there is free from anxiety. "I would have you free from anxiety, he that is unmarried cares for the things that belong to the Lord how he may please the Lord. But he that is married cares for the things that are of the world, how he may please...what? ... his wife and is divided." In your Bible at the end of verse 33, if it isn't there write "and is divided." That's in the best manuscripts. The proper manuscripts say "How he may please his wife and is divided."

Now what is he saying here? Well, he says I'd like you to be free from anxiety. I'd like you to be--in a sense--carefree. Lightfoot said, "A man who is a hero in himself becomes a coward when he thinks of his widowed wife and his orphaned children."

There are certain cares that just encumber your mind when you're married. A married man must concentrate on things concerning hiswife. A single unmarried, verse 32 says, cares for the things that belong to the Lord how he may please the Lord. Now this is potential, people. It doesn't mean that every single person is totally devoted to Jesus. It's just that he has the potential for that total devotion. There is an undistractedness that comes in the life of an unmarried person. He has only really one set of cares and that is his relation to the Lord. The married person has a divided set of cares, the Lord and his family. It isn't that they are bad, they're both good. They're both wonderful. They're both designed by God. But they are two things. There is the inability for single-mindedness in marriage. A married man is a divided person.

I think bout Luke 14, verse 20, where Jesus was calling people to follow Him. And He says to this one guy, "Come and follow Me." And the guy says, "I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come." wonder how many times that has happened around the world in the history of the church that there have been ministries and opportunities open but somebody married a wife and couldn't go. You say, "Well, was it wrong for them to marry?" No, it wasn't wrong but maybe it would have been better if they had the gift of singleness to have stayed single and then they wouldn't have had that problem.

I'll give you an interesting footnote. This is the only spiritual gift that I know of in the Scripture that you have an option to use. Isn't that interesting? It's the only one where there is an option. Where he says if you want to get married, that's fine, verse 28, you have not sinned. But I would sure suggest to you that if you have the gift of singleness, use it. God never makes a marriage a sin.

I got a letter from somebody last week that said their sin was in marriage. There is no such thing as sinning in getting married. That is not a sin to get married, unless you were to marry an unbeliever. But in marriage, that is a good thing. They sin not. It is the only spiritual gift that I know of that you have an option to use. And I'm sure there are some people who could have if they really were sensitive to the Lord stayed single and really been useful. But like Luke 14:20, they married a wife. That isn't wrong. It just may be that God could have used them in a different way. He'll use them through their marriage perhaps equally. But that option is there.

All right, if you're unmarried, potentially there is the possibility of caring only for the things that belong to the Lord, how to please Him. Just that total single minded devotion. But, verse 33, if you're married, page 10 you care for the things that are of the world, how you may please your wife and are divided.

Now, this is precisely true of the woman. Verse 34, the first part can be eliminated. "There is difference also between a wife," that part is out and "And is divided" should be in. One of the reasons I say this, we have later manuscript evidence since the script of the King James that prove to us that the proper reading here is, as I said, "please his wife and is divided And then it picks up in verse 34 with the word "And," so it would be a capital "All, "And a virgin and the unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord that she may be holy both in body and in spirit, but she that is married cares for the things of the world how she may please her husband." And again he's simply saying there is a dividedness here. It isn't wrong, it's just there.

A single person, male or female, has that total potential of concentration and devotion to the Lord in service to Him. A married person must care for his family because God says so. At the same time, must be involved in pursuing the things of the Lord.

Now you'll notice an interesting thing, it says at the end of verse 35 that this person is without distraction. A single person need have no distraction from serving the Lord. How many times, for example, in your life, some of you that are married to an unbeliever, have you had the struggle between trying to please an unbelieving partner and trying to serve the Lord? Or, maybe you've got a super, colossal outstanding; walking-in-the-Spirit partner and you still realize that sometimes your involvement as a family means that you can't do some things that maybe you otherwise could do. Now you can do some things that you otherwise couldn't do, so it goes both ways.

But that's all Paul is saying. A person who's married has a divided concentration. But, look at verse 34, the one that is single cares for the things of the Lord whether she's a virgin or unmarried, she cares for the things of the Lord and she is holy in body and in spirit ... potentially. What does it mean? The word "holy" basically in its very simple sense means "separated." And I think that's what he's saying. He's not saying single people are more holy than married people. Is that true? What does holiness have to do with it? It certainly doesn't have to do with your marital status; it has to do with the righteousness of God imputed to you, right? And there areplenty of single people who aren't very holy and there are plenty of married people who are and that isn't the criteria. But what he's saying is that the one who is not married can be separatedunto God physically and spiritually. There are no physical attachment, humanly speaking, there is no need to satisfy the physical. There are no spiritual encumbrances. There is a certain liberty and consecration. And that's what he's talking about.

Now remember, this is only for those who have the gift. If you don't have the gift, like 1 Timothy 5 says, "Let the younger women marry," let them marry, because if you don't, they're going to grow wanton later on and then you're going to have problems. Let them marry. But if you have the gift, remain that way, there is a possibility and a potential of consecration in body and spirit that is very unique. But a married woman cares for the things of the world, she has to worry about pleasing her husband, which is good, she ought to do that. But it's just that there are two things.

Now let me add verse 35 because Paul did and it's important. "Now this I speak for your own profit." Now somebody's going to get confused if he doesn't say this, so he says I'm just telling you this, folks, for your profit. "I am not casting a brochosaround your neck," a noose. I'm not putting a legalistic noose on you; I just want you to know what is good, "That you may attend on the Lord without distraction." It isn't that you have to stay single. Even if you have the gift for it, it is not a command, it is not that you must do this or else, it is that you have the option, you have the liberty, you have the freedom. And I'm only telling you for your own good, if you have the gift you'd be better off to use it. And, again, I point out the fact that this is the only gift I know of that's optional.

So, he's saying potentially you can have an undistracted devotion to the Lord if you want to take advantage of it. And I'm not saying this to bind you in legalism. I'm not saying this like a command that puts a noose around your neck and hangs you. I'm just telling you this, I'm not trying to put a snare on you, I just want you to know that this would give you the potential of serving the Lord without any division.

Let me give you an illustration of it. Look back in your Bible at Luke 10. Some of you may be fussing around in your brain for an illustration, so here's on in Luke 10. This is a really great story here. Luke 10:38 says, "Now it came to pass as they went that He entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house." Now h re's Jesus and He's in the house of this lovely lady named Martha. "And he had a sister called Mary who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His worn Jesus came into the house, sat down and Mary just plopped at His feet an just hung on every word, just drank it in. "But Martha," verse 40, "was cumbered about much serving."

Martha w s busy around the house getting everything ready. Is there anything wrong with preparing a meal? No, that's biblical hospitality. Is that good? That's good. Somebody comes and you feed them, that's wonderful. So she's busy doing that. "She's cumbered about much serving and she came o Jesus," and this is what she says to Christ, most interesting, Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?" Lord, does it matter to You that I'm setting the table by myself while she sit there? Does this bother You, Lord? "Lord, would You tell her to help me?"

Now, that will give you some idea of the authority that Martha felt she had over Mary. She had to ask Jesus to tell her. Would You please tell her to help me set this table? "Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things--in parenthesis (none of which matter)." Why do you say that, MacArthur? Verse 42, non thing ... what? ... is needful and Mary has chosen the good part which shall n t be taken away from her."I'm not telling her anything, she's doing w at she ought to do. Which would you rather have the Word of God or a cold dinner or a hot dinner? I'd rather have the Word of God and a cold dinner or no dinner than a hot dinner and not the Word of God. That's the implication. She's doing what's right.

You see, here's Mary and she has a single-mindedness, doesn't she? She could care les about the table and the place settings, she could care less about the whatever's going on in the kitchen, all she wants to do is drink in with devotion to Jesus Christ. But not Martha, she ... she's thinking about Christ is there and she's got all kinds of things going. Well, this is just simply, the illustration of the fact it isn't wrong to be hospitable but it does ca use, in this case, a divided devotion, doesn't it? Well, that's what Paul is saying. Thank God for people who have that single-mindedness.

You know, when I was in Keto Ecuador and had the wonderful privilege of meeting and since then corresponding with Rachel Saint, this unusual woman ho has given her whole life to those Alca Indians. She's an incredible person. I often think to myself that maybe unmarried people are the most fulfilled people of all because they don't need somebody else to make them complete. And she's a complete person in herself by the power of the Spirit and she's down there with those Indians and she's just going at it, revolutionizing a whole society for Christ. And throughout the history of the church, there have been many people with that kind of gift and that kind of commitment to Christ. And I thank God for them. There are reasons, you see, to receive the gift of singleness and welcome it. The pressure of the system, the problems of the flesh, the passing of the world and the preoccupation of the married. When you get married there is a dividedness in your life. It isn't bad it's just a fact.

Now fifthly, and this is the last reason he tells the single people they'd be better of f to stay single if they have the gift, the fifth one is the permanence of the union.

Boy, when you get married, you are married. And that is it. And there's no turning back. Verse 39, let's jump down to 39, we'll get back to the others. "Now the wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives." Boy, t hat's a long time. Now, this is a lifetime arrangement.

Now, some people have questioned why this passage is in here, 39 and 40, and there's a whole lot of discussion about it. And I don't know that I can give you the absolute answer to why it's here, but I'll tell you what I believe. I don't believe it's isolated. Some say it's just a tack-on to answer an issue about widows. I don't think so. I think basically, though it does answer that issue, it is here as just another reason for remaining single. Why? Because of the permanence of marriage. You'd be better off if you have the gift to stay single because once you're married, that is it. And you'll never be able to exercise the potential again. So think a long time before you do. Marriage is permanent. Once you're stuck, you're stuck.

Now, I'm not saying that everybody who's married is stuck. But there are some people who are married and stuck and you know that. And it isn't that it's bad, it's just that it's permanent, Some marriages are bad. You know, you can get a woman who clings so much that you can't do anything. You know, I know some men who would serve the Lord if their wife ever let go of them long enough.

In Proverbs 21:9 it says, "It is better to dwell in a corner than with a brawling woman in a big house." Believe me, there ... you know, there are people who are looking for such corners. You know, it's better to be all alone in a corner than married to the wrong one, right?

Listen to verse 19, "It is better to live in the desert than with a contentious and angry woman." And that's why a lot of times you'll hear a man say, "I gottaget out ... I gotta go...I must be alone." It's better to be in the desert than with a contentious and angry woman.

What am I saying by that? I'm saying that very often marriage can become a bondage...a negative bondage. It is truly a positive bondage, a loving bondage a fulfilling and meaningful and happy bondage but it is permanent. And when Jesus was speaking in Matthew 19 to the disciples and He was telling them about how marriage was permanent and He said, "If anybody marries...if anybody sets his wife apart without adultery, he causes her to commit adultery.' Boy, and He was emphasizing this, that marriage is solid bond andit's unbroken for any other reason than adultery. What the disciples responded was was this, "Hey, we think it would be better if its so permanent to stay single." And He said, "Well, that's right but not all of you can handle it."

So, they came to the same conclusion that the permanence of marriage is a good reason to stay single if you have the gift. Because once you're married, the responsibilities, the encumbrances, that which you must give to your marriage is set and you must give it.

Now, I want to add to that, people, that I look at my marriage as a friendship and a companionship. And that over-balances all of the negative factors that would ever be there from a ministry standpoint because I can't live without my wife cause I love her and I love my children and I wouldn't have it any other way. But all we're pointing out here are the basic facts of the union, not our attitude toward it. We can see that marriage is a permanent thing and you're there to stay but that doesn't have to be bad. It could be good but it's still true, isn't it, it's permanent. And he's saying simply this, if you have the gift of singleness, think about it because if you ever choose to marry, that's a final choice. And you can't go back unless there is a death.

And then he says in 39, "If the husband does die, you're still at liberty to be married to whomever you want only ... what? ... in the Lord .... only in the Lord." Romans 7 says the same thing, the only thing that severs a marriage is death. Now Jesus, of course, said that ... that divorce and Paul added the unbelieving departs, but apart from sin, apart from that, in the marriage of Christians there is no way out, it's permanent. So once you've made the choice, he says, that's the choice. And when we marry people, they say until death do us part. And that's what God intended. After that you can be married but you can only marry a Christian.

And there's a basic principle there, folks, only in the Lord. I believe Christians are only permitted to marryChristians. Somebody said ... I read somewhere this week, somebody said, "Well, that is the best, but certainly God would allow in many cases for us to marry unbelievers to evangelize them." I don't believe that. I don't believe marriage is a good ground for evangelism. When you will marry an unbeliever, in effect you're saying to that unbeliever, "Christianity is important to me but not very important. Right? Because if it was really important you'd marry a Christian if Christian fellowship meant that much.

Listen to Deuteronomy 7, and this is God's standard from way back. "The Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land where you're going to possess it and He's cast out nations before you to make the land ready for you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites (and I expect you to know how to spell all of those on the quiz) and when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you, you will smite them and destroy them and make no covenant with them." And you go in there, boy, you're going to get rid of all those pagan people.

Now listen, "Neither shalt thou make marriages with them, thy daughter thou shalt not give to his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son, for they will turn away thy son from following Me that they may serve other gods."

Now sometimes in a mixed marriage somebody does get saved, but more often than not, somebody gets dragged away. From Deuteronomy 7, it hasn't changed. You can go to 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and Paul says the very same thing, "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, there is no fellowship between light and darkness." What concord has Christ and Satan? It doesn't ma e any sense.

So, marriage is permanent. The only way out is death. And then if death did occur, he adds to the widows here they may remarry, only in the Lord. But, verse 40, "She would be happier in my judgment if she just stayed single," if she had the gift in the first place. "And I am convinced also that I have the Spirit of God." What he's simply saying there is all these people were saying, the Jews were saying, "Well, boy, God says to get married." And somebody else's saying, "Well, the Spirit of God said to stay single." And Paul says, "Well, I'm telling you a few things and I have the Spirit of God just like they do." It's sarcastic. "My opinion," he word dokeo, it says "I think" in the King James, that doesn't sound good, it sounds like Paul's saying, "Well, I...I think I have the Holy Spirit." Not Paul. I also have the Spirit of God that I'm giving you divine revelation. It's a frequent word used to speak of something absolutely certain.

All right should a person stay single? Yes if he has the gift, yes. Why? Cause o all these reasons. And so, this is important to say to the Corinthians. So all the single people are saying, "Well, that's very good, but there's one other factor." There's one other factor in the whole thing and that's verses 36 to 38 and that is the fathers. Do you know marriages were arranged by the father? And you can't have a whole section to single people without saying something to dads. And, dads, I hope this says something to you, it really says something to me.

In Old Testament society, the arranged marriage was the norm. And so, Paul's got to talk to the fathers. It was true in the Roman society. Did you know that in the Roman society the parents chose the partners? Andy in fact, in the history of the Roman Empire they said that one of the beginnings of ;the breakdown of Roman authority was when Roman parents lost the right to counteract the desires of their children to get married. That began the break down of the home that was part of the seeds of the dissolution of the whole Roman Empire. And so even in the Roman Empire, at this time, the parents chose. Jewish Old Testament, the parents chose. For example, Hagar selected a wife for Ishmael. Abraham selected a wife for Isaac. Judah's selection of Tamar to be the wife of his son Er. These are all common in the Old Testament. Jacob was told what family to go to, wasn't he, to find his wife. There was a little bit of option there, cause there was a few daughters to choose from. And he worked seven years and they gave him the wrong one with a veil on. Man, I'm telling you, if you're going t marry somebody, check out what's under that veil before you get to the ceremony. Pull that kind of stuff.

But there was the selection of the family. There are even instances when a king or a priest selected a wife. Pharaoh gave a wife to Joseph in Genesis 41. And another Pharaoh gave a wife to Hadad the Edomite in 1 Kings chapter 11, verse 19. Jehoiada, to the high priest, got two wives to give to the boy king Joash in 2 Chronicles 24:3. Didn't do him any favors in doing that, a high priest of all people. But it happened.

It was a parental thing. And history tells us that around the year 500 B.C., marriage brokers even developed, called "Shadkan". These brokers were just available. You remember "Fiddler on the Roof, "Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match?" That's precisely what those were, traditional Jewish marriage brokers. And when you had your daughter come to the a e where you wanted to get her married, you just went off to the marriage broker and said, "I want one this and so, and which such-and-such background from a such-and-such thing," and all of a sudden the marriage broker would look through his listings and, you know, I don't know whether it was like the line up, where they all came in and you picked, but there was a...there was a working out of the situation. This was historic. And the family would work it through the broker. How'd you like that, girls? It would be interesting.

Now some even f eel that in Israel's early history, the bride and the groom had absolutely nothing to say about it. It's been said that they were just totally unconsidered. But I don't agree with that. I think that as best we can tell from the Scripture, the young man had something to say about it. That it wasn't just his father walking in on the day of the wedding and saying, "Here's your bride." "Oh, hello, it's nice to meet you. You know, it wasn't that. And it wasn't, "Well, you're going to marry, you know, what's her name, whatever you want, I'm not interested in what you want, you're marrying her." It wasn't that kind of a situation. Apparently the young manhad the right to some kind of choice.

There's a couple of places where we could look but I think 1 Samuel 18:20, "And Michael, Saul's daughter, loved David and they told Saul and the thing pleased him and Saul said, I will give him her." Now here was an illustration of a woman loving a man and a man loving a woman and the father giving consent. So it was not out of the ordinary for such to happen.

So I believe that even though the marriage arranged by the family dominated the society, usually there was some kind of love relationship, or often there was some kind of love relationship and consent from the children.

Song of Solomon expresses tremendous love between two people. It was more than just a political thing. More than just a parental agreement. The will of th e man was involved and I'm sure, also, the will of the woman came into the situation as well.

Now that's pretty much the way it was. The father would decide it and certainly the other would agree and the kids were involved in some way. Maybe there w re times when their will was overruled, but there were times, also, when they were considered as a part of the decision. This was the general pattern.

So, when you come to 1 Corinthians and Paul's writing to these Christian people, they're still in that pattern pretty much if they're Jewish and that was also the Roman pattern that the parents would choose. So he's going to say something to the fathers to help them in their part of the situation. Verse 36, all that to get here. Now as we look at verse 36, it says, and I'm going to read it to you, interpreting it as I read it, "If any father," and that's what the word "man" refers to here. "If any father feels that he behaves himself unfairly toward his virgin daughter, if any father eels that he behaves himself unfairly toward his virgin daughter...

Now what does that mean? Now listen, here's a father, he looks at the world around him, he hears everythingthat Paul is saying about it's better to be single, it's better to be single, it's better to be single. And you know what he decides in his mind? It's better to be single. "I consecrate my little daughter to the Lord; I'm going to give my little daughter to the Lord." That's neat. Fathers, have you ever thought like that? Does your little daughter grow up thinking, "When you going to get married?" Who do you think you're going to marry? And you start from the very first ... you have a boyfriend ... we do this with kids ... many people and pretty soon all they can think about is marriage. Here's a father who says, "I want you to give your whole life to Christ. I want you to devote your whole life to the building of the Kingdom of God. After all, marriage is only temporary and when we get to heaven none of us will be married anyway. I want you to be single and free and you ... and, boy, I'm going to commit you to Jesus Christ and to His service."

What a neat thing for a father to do. Terrific. I mean, I'm really thinking about that. You know, I get, my kids are so young, they'll agree. You know, if I say to Marcy, "Marcy,you're going to be single all your life and just be with us and serve the Lord." She'd say, "Terrific." She doesn't want to get married anyway. That's like one family was telling me that ... we were talking about this and the little guy ... they went home and they were sitting around the table and one of their children said- "You know, after hearing that message. and I love our family so much I don't ever want to get married. I just decided to be a cell beet all my life." So, you can decide that you're children are going to be cell beets all their life when they're little because they're not going to argue, right? They're not going to argue about that.

And here's a father whose done that. "And, man, I'm goingto devote this little life to the Lord. I'm just going to consecrate this little gal to the Lord and I'm not going...I don't want to even gamble with marriage." But you know what happens? He ... the father realizes that he is behaving himself unfairly toward his virgin daughter. You know why? He made a nice decision but, you know, you've got a problem. Verse 36, "If she passes the flower of age," what that means is if she reaches sexual maturity, if she reaches the apex, if she reaches the time when she has all of the sexual sensitivities and what happens? "And need so requires." What does need require? That she what? She marries. It becomes necessary, that means.

If I make a vow for my daughter but I realize I'm not being fair with her because now that she's reached sexual maturity, she desires to be married. What do I do? He says, "Let him do what he will, he sins not. Let them ... what? ... marry." Let them get married. It was a nice idea, but she didn't get the gift. The Spirit of God didn't give her that gift and that's a gift the Spirit of God gives. If she doesn't have the gift, the father's saying, "Man, it's obvious she doesn't have the gift, all she talks about is this guy." And apparently there's a guy there or it wouldn't say, "let them marry." There's a them, somebody's hanging around. And, you see, he is behaving unfairly toward his daughter because if he doesn't let her get married he's going to tempt her to ,,morality physically to immorality in her mind and to seduction. And so he realizes, "I can't do this to my lovely little daughter as much as I'd want to devote her to the Lord, there's a guy here and she's saying yes, yes, yes, and I'm saying no, no, no, and it's not right.'

So, dads, hey, it's a super idea if you want to devote your daughter to being single, or your son. But if they get to the age of sexual consciousness and they require marriage, let them marry. It's no sin. You don't have to keep some vow. We're not in the vow age anymore.

Now, verse 37 takes the other side. "Nevertheless, he that stands steadfast in his heart," and there is the fatherly decision, the father's firm resolution, in my heart I have decided that she's going to be single, or he's going to be single. You made a firm resolution, good, God leads through a father's decision, don't you believe that? God leads a family through the father. "And he makes that decision having no necessity," what does that mean? The daughter doesn't need to get married. She's not putting any pressure; she has no special sexual urge for marriage. And so her father has no obligation. He stands steadfast in his heart, she has no necessity, he then is given power over his own will, he's so decreed in his own heart that he'll keep his virgin daughter, he does what ... he does well. Father, you made a good decision.

You know today how that would go over? "Well, why aren't you married?" "My father decided I should be single." "Cruel man." The Bible says he does what? He does what? He does well. If you were to decide that for your daughter and your daughter had no great strong sexual urge, you would do well, father, mother, you would do well. It's a good thing.

So, he says, "Father, look if you stand fast in your heart and you feel it's right, and she has no necessity for marriage, you have power over your own will, you so decree in your heart to keep her a virgin ... fine, you're doing very well." What is all this saying to you? I'll tell you what it's saying to me. God wants some people...what?... single. And we do well to consider that with our own children.

So then, verse 38, "He that gives her in marriage, does well, but he that gives her not in marriage does ... what? ... better?" You're kidding. Is that what it says? That's what it says. You say, "Who said it?" God. "What do you mean?" Underline verse 38 is the gift. You don't do your daughter any favors if she doesn't have the gift, right? But if there's the gift of singleness and marriage isn't necessary for your son or your daughter, that's fine to give her in marriage, the gift is optional, it's the only one that's optional. But if you don't, you're doing even better if you'll let hem use the gift. It's the question of advantage, people.

Well, this is an interesting chapter, isn't it? What is it saying to us? marriage is good. And for most of us, it's the only way to live. And I love it. And I wouldn't trade it. And I...I know you wouldn't either and it's fulfilled the way God designed it. But, listen to me, marriage is good, fulfill it, enjoy it, sustain it for life but so is singleness good.

Fulfill it, enjoy it, use it for God's glory. That's the message of 1 Corinthians our Christianity will exist and grow and mature and prosper whether you're married or single. That isn't the issue. So he settles once and for a 1 the Corinthians' hang up about how marriage effected spirituality. It has no effect. What you are, married or single, has no bearing on you spirituality. God wants some married for special reasons and some single. And I think, beloved, in the church we need to beware of this, we need to recognize it and we need to be accepting and loving with those that are single and if we're single, with those that are married and understand the full complement of the body of Christ. Let's pray.

For our time this morning, Lord, we ... we ask Your Holy Spirit to seal to us what we've learned and shared and expressed and to teach us and -to help us to tea h others these same great truths. Thank You for all the parts of the body of Christ, the married ones and the single ones, those set aside in marriage to be examples, to raise children, to nurture them in the things of he Lord, to teach them Your ways and those set aside in singleness to be free to serve You, to be mobile, to be available, to be single-minded. For that full complement in Your design of the body, we give You gratitude. Father, help us to search our own hearts and look carefully at the options of Your callings before us and choose wisely and well for us and for our children. And we'll praise You in Christ's name. Amen.