Unequal Yoke

[Music: Battle Hymn of the Republic] [Voice-over] Churches and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly homefront. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! We thank our God again for another time in His presence. We thank our God for the first Saturday for the month of August. We give Him all the glory. We give Him all the honor. We give Him all the adoration. Indeed, our God is good. As we come into His presence this morning again for another time of our Singles' Club, I trust the Lord that it will be a blessed time and a time to meet with Him in the name of Jesus Christ. Let's take this song together briefly as we welcome everybody—our brethren who are here physically and those of us who are joining us online this morning. Let us take this song together. [Singing] Praise him the Lord always. Praise him the Lord always. Praise him the Lord with all my heart. Praise him the Lord with all my heart, always. Hallelujah, my Lord is good. Hallelujah, my Lord is good. Hallelujah, my Lord is good. He's good to me. I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart. I will enter His courts with praise. I will say this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice for He has made me glad. He has made me glad, and I'm so glad. I will rejoice for He has made me glad. Our Father, we worship You. We commit our fellowship this morning into Your hand. We pray that as we connect again together in fellowship, in scriptures, and with one another—our brethren online and we here physically—Lord, we pray that Your Spirit will work within us in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that You will build Your church in such a way that the gates of hell will not prevail in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, our eyes on You this morning. Cause us to behold wondrous things out of Your law in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, Eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. This morning, we will be looking at a very vital topic: Unequal yoke or unequal yoking. It is important for us to look at it together to understand the mind of God concerning this matter of unequal yoking. It is something in the mind of God that began all the way from creation. It is always in the mind of God to be sure that there is a separation, there is a distinction between that which belongs to Him and that which does not belong to Him. But for the purpose of emphasis, before we begin to go on and on this morning, I would like us to read the word of Apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6. 2nd Corinthians chapter 6, the Holy Spirit raised something there through our brother Paul, and it is good for us to look at it. It is a very familiar scripture that I believe we can just quickly look at together. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 6, from verse 14. The Bible says: "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers." (2 Corinthians 6:14) If you look at this statement, this is not a counsel. This is not an advice. This is a direct instruction. It is a direct instruction from scriptures. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Therefore, "Come out from among them and be separate," says the Lord. "Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you." "I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters," says the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) If you look, immediately following this wonderful promise where He says, "Therefore, come out from among them and be separate," says the Lord. "Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters." If you look immediately at chapter 7 of 2nd Corinthians, you will see that following that quotation of a promise from the Almighty God, scriptures gave another straight instruction. Don't forget what I said the first time: "Do not be unequally yoked" is not an advice. "Do not be unequally yoked" is a direct instruction from the Lord. It is not a counsel. It is an express command. And then, having given that command, that instruction, it was now backed with a promise that if you carry out this instruction—just like you find in Ephesians chapter 6 where he says, "Honor father and mother. For this is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you"—the instruction was direct, then there was a promise attached to it. The same thing you are having here. The instruction is direct: Do not be unequally yoked. What has light to do with darkness? And then there was a promise: If you come out from among them and don't touch the unclean thing, what will happen? God will be a Father to you. There was a promise also attached to it, just like you find in Ephesians chapter 6. Now, what I really want to say before I move on is that immediately following that promise, look at what the Bible says in chapter 7, verse 1. Look at the next direct instruction following it. It says, "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (2 Corinthians 7:1) You see, what I want you to know as I begin this morning is that the matter of unequal yoking, the matter of communion, the matter of agreement with darkness, the matter of fellowship with darkness, the matter of doing the unfruitful things of darkness—what it actually relates to is the matter of holiness. If any man will perfect holiness in the fear of God, if any man will be able to live holy in the fear of God, the person must understand this matter of unequal yoke. The matter of light and darkness having the same lifestyle, unbelievers and believers having the same values, unbelievers and believers having the same orientation towards life, believers running the same attitude to life just like an unbeliever, believers having the same philosophy, the same outlook, value system to life with unbeliever, believers sharing the same normative pattern of value system with unbeliever, believers having the same passion with unbeliever, believers having the same mindset like unbeliever—the Bible is saying that anybody that is like that, it is not possible for that person to perfect holiness in the fear of God. It is completely impossible. The perfecting of holiness—let me take another translation of that scripture—it says, "Because of these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit, and let us work towards complete purity." It is impossible to work towards complete purity under unequal yoking. Your life will have different stains—stains of defilement either at the level of the body or at the level of the spirit. That is, either physically, or mentally, or emotionally, or in your thoughts, there will be some kind of defilement. What the Bible meant by purity of the body and spirit—the Bible is talking about physically in our body. You may find yourself being immoral physically—illicit relationship, pornography, fornication, whatever—physically in the body. Or in the spirit, you may be having lustful thoughts, lustful look, looking at women lustfully—talking about the spirit, at the level of the thoughts, mentally, emotionally. Your emotion may not be correct. Your emotion, when we are talking about brotherly affection, what may be appearing to you as brotherly affection may be lustful feeling. The Bible is saying that anybody that does not properly understand this matter of the need not to be unequally yoked, such a person can never work towards complete purity. There will be some kind of defilement in the person's life. There will be some kind of defilement. And that is why you find out today Christians are guilty of so many things—so many things. Some will tell you "I'm still a virgin," but ask them more questions. Have you romanced before? Have anybody fingered you before? Have you kissed before? Begin to ask further questions, you will discover that purity is not there. So what the Bible is saying is that for us to work towards complete purity, we must understand this matter of unequal yoking. And what I want to do today by the grace of God is just to lay a foundation. I trust the Lord that the Lord helping us beyond the month of September—first Saturday in September—I will go yet further on this matter. But I want to lay some foundations today that are very, very important for us about this matter. And the first foundation I am laying, I am trying to make you see is that get it very clear: If there is some kind of unequal yoking in your life, you can never be completely pure. There will be defilement one way or the other in your life. There will be defilement. There will be defilement one way or the other in your life. That is one thing I want you to see. And then, another important foundation I want to lay is I want us to look at what was in the mind of God from the onset. Let us see something that God did at the very, very beginning. I want you to look at that principle of God. Look at the principle of God. Look at the principle of God. Let's look at Genesis chapter 1. Let's look at the creation story there. Genesis chapter 1. The Bible says: "In the beginning," I'm reading from verse 1, "God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, 'Let there be light.'" (Genesis 1:1-3) I will be linking all of this together, trusting God sometime next month, the Lord sparing our lives, because he said what fellowship has light with darkness. We will be looking at all those matters that were raised by scripture in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6. What accord between light and darkness? All of all those things, we will be looking at them. Who is an unbeliever? Who is a believer? Who is light? Who is darkness? Why did he say Belial and then the temple of God? What are all those terms coming out of scripture? We will be looking at those ones much more the more. But I want to lay some fundamental things today. He says, "God said, let there be light." In the midst of the confusion and of the darkness, and the Bible says there was light. There was light. The next thing that followed is that the Bible says, "And God saw that the light was good, and God divided the light from darkness." (Genesis 1:3-4) Are you getting something? I want you to note that ever from creation, there is something about God. After the light was created, the first thing that God did to light was that God separated the light from darkness. That was the first thing that God did with light. The first thing that God did with light was to separate light from darkness. That was the very first thing that God did. The first thing that God did with light after light was created was that ever from the foundation of the earth, in the mind of God, in the workings of God, in the principles of God, is that light should be separated from darkness. He says, "God separated light from darkness." You will notice that it was after the separation that the Bible says God called the light "day" and then the darkness He called "night." (Genesis 1:4-5) I just quickly say two things from this place. Number one is that light did not receive a name until it was separated from darkness. When God separated light from darkness, God now called light "day." Because by the time we go back to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6, you will be understanding why Paul was saying, "Be separate, and I will receive you. Come out from them, don't touch unclean, and I will be a Father." Why so many, so many Christians, so many, so many believers, have not been singled out for God, have not been singled out by God? So many believers, God could not invest into their lives, God could not identify them and separate them unto particular things, God could not carry them and say, "Look, be a vessel unto me." Why they are not a vessel fit for the Master's use? Why they could not be called? Why they could not be identified? Why God could not give them a name? Why they could not be named? Why forever it will look as if they will ever be among the multitude, they will never rise above the multitude? It is because of this matter of unequal yoking. Before God began to say, "Light, I call you Day," wanting to give light a dominion—maybe you don't understand—do you notice that Day, when you say Day, there is a dominion of the day and there is a dominion of the night? And the two of them are mutually exclusive. There is nothing like "day-night" or "night-day." It is day and night. Before that dominion, before that thing was saying, "Look, you are Day," you notice He separated the light from darkness. That is the way of God. We are talking about unequal yoking. Very, very important for you to see these things and to get it very, very clear. So that you don't abuse your life, you don't become somebody that is not distinguished by God, you don't become somebody that is not recognized by Him. Your life don't just mix up with the crowd. You don't just get mixed up with the crowd because if you don't separate light from darkness, we cannot call it something, we cannot name it something, we cannot give it a dominion. We must first separate it. So what God begins to do with a man's life once the man becomes born-again is to begin to change the person's value system, the person's orientation to life, your philosophy about life, your attitude to life, your behavior towards life, your value system, your priorities in life. God begin to change all of all those things, and as you yield to them, as you yield yourself to these things, what happen? Then you get your dominion. That's what God told them was that look, don't have anything to do with those things, don't have anything to do with them. And then, if you notice something again in scripture, still about still in the Old Testament. From this scripture that we just read, it said because you are a people chosen, a people chosen by the Lord, to be a special treasure to Him. Now, I want you to compare this with Titus. Look at what the Bible says in Titus. Titus chapter 2. Look at what the Bible says in Titus from verse 11. It says: "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared unto all men." (Titus 2:11) What is the essence of that grace? Once we link it together to Deuteronomy chapter 7 that we just read, what is the grace doing? In the verse 12, what is the grace doing? It says, "teaching us," what do you see? That "denying ungodliness." How do you know that grace is in a life? How do you know that the work of God actually began in a life? You begin to see that life understanding how to deny. I would like to read that scripture in the NLT translation. It says, "It teaches us to say no to ungodliness." Once a man don't begin to say "no" to ungodliness, the truth about that life is that life did not receive grace. Once grace come into a man's life, it is out to distinguish it from darkness. It must be separated. There is something about it. And that is why I keep wondering sometimes whether our generation really understand what it means to receive grace. I don't know what you explain grace to me, I don't know what you understand grace to mean. Maybe one of these days we will be talking about the grace of God. But maybe people see grace as grace means that we can live anyhow. Grace means whatever we do, then God will not punish us. Grace means that once you are saved, then you can begin to misbehave as you like, and then because there is a mercy of God, because Jesus Christ is there interceding for you, so you have received a grace to begin to live foolishly and carelessly. You've received a grace to remain immoral and you call yourself a Christian. You've received a grace to be having secret sin here and there, and every time you keep saying, "God forgive me, God forgive me." Every time you come back again to the continuous mentioning of sin. You forgot that it was because there was a continuous mentioning of sin in the Old Testament, that is why God set aside that covenant, to bring up a covenant where we can now have victory over sin. In the Old Testament, there is a constant mentioning, every time they come to God, they must be a repentance from something, they must repent from something, they must repent from something, they must be consecrated from something. There is a continuous mentioning of sin, and God had to set aside that covenant. The Bible says because of its weakness and its unprofitableness, because that covenant could not make men to live a holy life. So God set it aside, and God established a better covenant—a better covenant by which we can draw near to God. And the appearance, the appearing of that grace in our life, the first thing that grace is doing—that's why I said I like the NLT translation—it teaches us. When grace appears to a man, when grace appears to you, grace begin to teach you. It begins to teach you some definite things. The definite things grace begin to teach you—that is what the Bible records here—it teaches you to say what? "No" to ungodliness and worldly passion. Worldly passion. And to live a self-controlled—and to live self-controlled. Grace begin to make you to have self-control. It teaches you to have self-control, control over your passion, control over either the passion of—for anything. Self-control over the love for money, the love for sex. Look at the craziness today in our young people. The love for indecency. Almost—even what the Englishman call "private parts" has become "public parts." The Englishman looked at them "all of these things should be called private." Today you find it in the public. The craziness for being sexy, the craziness for looking good, the craziness. Grace begin to make you to have self-control. Grace again begin to teach you to be upright. Grace begin to teach you to be godly in this present life. So do you see one thing that grace begin to do? Once grace appears to you, what exactly does grace want to do? Grace want to make you to be separate in your lifestyle. Are you seeing that? Once grace begin to appear, it begin to separate you. Separate you in the way you think, separate you in the way you reason. Separate you, set you apart, because when God created light, the first thing God did was to separate light from darkness. So you see, the Bible says for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passion, and to live self-controlled, upright, godly, in this present age. You see it? In this present age. I keep telling people, God did not give grace for us so that when we get to heaven we can be holy. No. Because the people that will be in heaven will already be holy people. God gave grace so that in this present life, our lifestyle can be different. The essence of grace is primarily—grace was directed towards how to live. Jesus gave grace so that there will be capacity to live in the present madness that is going on. There is something about grace that will not make you to be mad. What do you think will make a student graduate from school and then what he could display is that aggressive cheating brought him that far? Is that not madness in a child? Is that the kind of thing that somebody who is getting a degree will say "BSc Hon," meaning you have been trained both morally and academically? That is why we put the "Hon." We say "BSc Hon"—that morally you have been trained—and somebody who went through all of that, and at a point to celebrate that he has been trained morally, that he had received discipline, was to display that, "Do you see who I am? What is really exciting me is that cheating brought me this far." Is that not—should such a shameful thing be just an obscene thing, be something that somebody should be talking about, if not because the understanding of many of our young people have been darkened today? For what they ought to be ashamed about are the things that they glory in. The Bible says they glory in their shame. Why is that possible? Because they are darkness. But we are light. So what I am trying to say fundamentally today, as I try to close this meeting for today, is that number one, I want to try and do a kind of summary of my discussion this morning. I said I will be building on this matter in our next meeting. I will take time to build on this. The first thing I tried to make you see is that when you want to understand when we say "unequal yoke," is to try to understand what unequal yoking meant. In that 2nd Corinthians chapter 6, what it meant was clear. The Bible declare it, the Bible made it very, very clear what "do not be unequally yoked" meant. In the verse 15, 16, it made it very, very clear. Immediately the Bible says that do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, Bible began to define what that meant. The Bible says that what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? So when you see anybody who says he is a believer and does not have respect and regards for authority, does not have respect and regards for a sense of right and lawlessness, when you see lawlessness behavior, when you see those kind of things in a believer, you begin to wonder: Is this a believer or an unbeliever? What communion has light and darkness? Believers are light. We will be explaining what we mean by darkness in our subsequent discussion. How do we define lawlessness? How do we define righteousness? How do we define light and darkness? Believers are light. There is something about them, and if you look at it, light and darkness, they are exclusive. Once light comes, darkness disappears. Anywhere you see darkness, you don't find light. Once light comes, darkness has its way. They are mutually exclusive. Talking about what it is, so when you begin to see a light being able to fellowship with darkness, you know that light is no more light. There is something wrong about that light because ordinarily if it is actually light, it is not possible to have fellowship with darkness. He said what accord has Christ and Belial? What agreement? Similarity, sameness, same value, same pursuit, same passion, same attitude, same outlook to life. And what part has believer with an unbeliever? What agreement has temple of God with idols? We saw that it is about a lifestyle, it is about our philosophy, it is about our attitude, it is about the way we look at things, it is about our value system, it is about our priority, it is about our passion, it is about that that the Bible is talking about—that there should be a distinction between Christians and those who are not Christians, children of God and those who are not children of God. That is the first thing I tried to establish. And what I also said fundamentally is that not to be unequally yoked is a direct instruction. If unequally yoked, you are a disobedient child. It is a direct instruction. It is not an advice. It is not a counsel. It is a direct instruction: Do not be. You were instructed not to be. And then what I said again is that you must know fundamentally that God gave a promise that if you come out from among them and you don't touch the unclean thing, "they will be my people, I will be their God, and I will be a Father unto them." There is a promise attached to it, telling you that there are certain things you can never enjoy except you meet that condition. There are certain things you will never enjoy in God if you don't meet that condition. And I showed you that for you to know that that is the truth, the Bible makes it clear in the next chapter. It says, "Having these great promises, let us do everything to be cleansed from all defilement of the body and of the spirit." It is so important. So many defilements today, so many defilements in the body and in the spirit. That is one thing that is everywhere! Everywhere! Defilement! Pollution! Pollution in everything. Institutions break down. Structural problem. Disharmony in the family. Rebellious children. Young men and women given to craziness about making riches. So much—I don't know what to call it. Whether to say madness or to say confusion. But at the same time, it is not as if we should be surprised. The Bible had said this already. He said evil men and seducers, they will wax worse and worse, but you pursue godliness. So the madness that we are seeing is also a fulfillment of scripture. There is nothing strange about them. But what I am trying to say to you as a child of God is that in all of this, are we not also mad the way the world is mad? Are you not also defiled the way the world is defiled? Are you not polluted the way they are polluted? Are you not corrupt the way they are corrupt in your thoughts? At the level of your thoughts, at the level of your emotions. Then physically, at the level of sight. Are you not like them? That is the matter we are talking about: Unequal yoke. Are you sure you are not one of them? Are you sure you are not living their life? Are you sure you are not like them in the way you dress, in what you value in dressing? In the way you look, in the way you speak, in your attitude to life, in your approach to life, in the way you obtain things? Look at the level of corruption and decadence in our educational system today. Look at the level of exam malpractices, and sometimes even those who are supposed to teach morals to the children encourage them to continue. Is it not something strange? So many abnormalities today. What I am only saying about this is that it is part of the end-time. What I am saying is that are you not part of this end-time spirit? Are you not part of this thing as a child of God? Are you sure you have not been taken by the spirit of the end-time? Unequal yoking. The Lord will help us to continue from where we are stopping today. In the month of September, we trust Him for grace and mercy. All we are saying today is check your life. The first implication of grace in a man's life is to separate light from darkness. That is the first working of grace. That is what grace does. Once it appears to a man, what it begin to deal with in a man's life is unequal yoke. So if grace has appeared to you two years ago, five years ago, four years ago, six years ago, the question we need to ask you is what the level of purity that you have in life? What is the level of purity that you have? Wherever you are listening to me this morning—our brethren online and those who are here—I want us to begin to talk with the Lord. Talk with the Lord. That my light will shine, that men may see and give glory to the Father. Oh God, that my light may shine. Can you pray this morning, the prayer that Paul prayed for the Colossian church: Lord, fill me with the knowledge of Your will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that I may walk worthy of You in every way pleasing. Lord, fill me with the knowledge of Your will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that I may walk worthy of You. Thank You, Eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Can we share the grace together? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and forever more. Amen and amen. [Voice-over] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission aid. Our regular activities are discipleship class every Monday, 5 PM, Adolescent and Singles Club every first Saturday of every month at 10 AM, Marriage Forum second Saturday of every month at 10 AM, family life seminars, regular school out-reaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the First Bridge, Ilere Community, opposite the Rejoice filling station along Ijede Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 080-3386-1136, 070-3361-3848. God bless you all. [Music playing to end]