“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what do righteousness and lawlessness share together, or what does light have in common with darkness?” 2 Corinthians 6:14
Eighth Indictment: A Silence on Separation
Today there is a void of serious teaching about holiness in life. There is, of course, a general teaching on holiness that everyone agrees on. “Let’s be holy,” they say, “We need to be more holy. Let’s have a holiness conference.” But when you get specific about what that means, that’s when everything boils over.
“Pursue peace with all men,” the writer of Hebrews tells us, “and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb 12:14). Does anybody believe this? A pastor says, “But Brother Paul, I have been blamed so often for teaching, you know, ‘works’ religion.” Listen to me. Listen. It goes back again to regeneration and the providence of God. If God truly converts a man, He will continue working in that man, through teaching, blessing, admonition, and discipline. He will see to it that the work He has begun will be finished. And that is why the writer says, “Without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Why?—because if there is no growth in holiness, then God is not working in your life. And if He is not working in your life, it is because you are not His child!
Look at the difference between Jacob and Esau. “Jacob I loved…Esau I hated” (Rom 9:13). Yet God fulfilled all His promises to both of them. Jacob was blessed; Esau was blessed. How did God demonstrate His judgments and wrath against Esau, and His love toward Jacob? First, He let them both run wild. But in Esau there was no work of discipline, no work of godly correction, nothing—this was the wrath of God upon him! But God severely disciplined Jacob almost every day of his life—this was the love of God upon him! It was the loving discipline, the correction of God, to bring him to holiness. And it is the same for all true believers today.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”—Romans 12:1-2
Why does he say “to present your bodies”? I think the reason is to avoid all this “super-spirituality” of today. You say, “I have given Jesus my heart, and you can’t judge a book by its cover. You can’t judge my inner condition by my outer works.” But, as a matter of fact, you can judge a book by its cover. Jesus never said you couldn’t; rather, He specifically said that you could: “You will know them by their fruit” (Mat 12:33).
Now, if you think that you have given Christ your heart, then He will have your body too. And I will tell you why. The heart, my friend, is not some blood-pumping muscle or some figment of a poet’s imagination. In the Bible, heart refers to the very essence or core of your being. Don’t tell me Jesus has the very essence and core of your being and it doesn’t affect your whole body and life. It just does not happen that way!
And so, we need to go through Scripture—and not legalistically and not just drawing inferences. No, instead we go through Scripture and stand on its clear commands. Commands about what? What sort of commands guide us in our families? I do not agree with everything the Puritans said, but I do love the Puritans, and one of the reasons why I love them is because I believe they honestly made an attempt to bring everything in their lives under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Everything!
Everything, such as their minds! They wrote 800-page books on what we should think about according to the Scriptures. And what should not enter into our minds according to the Scriptures. What we should do with our eyes. What should go in these ears and what should not go in these ears. How the tongue should be ruled. What should be the direction of our lives.
And yes, I am going to scare you to death: How we should dress! Now I am going to be careful here; I don’t want to just speculate. My dear friend, my wife says it this way: If your clothing is a frame for your face from which the glory of Christ springs forth, it is of God. But if your clothing is a frame for your body, it is sensual, and God hates it. The nature of God guides our decisions in every detail of our conduct.
Now I can’t go through everything of holiness, and holiness isn’t just outward expression, but we have come to be a people that uses the interior work of the Spirit as an excuse to say nothing needs ever to happen on the outside. And that is not true! Some of you young men, you cry out probably more than I do that the Spirit of God would fill you and work in you, but it only takes one-half hour of television to so grieve Him, that He will be miles from you. If water is ninety-nine percent pure, and 1% sewer, then I am not drinking it!
One time I was struggling, and Leonard Ravenhill heard about it from my friend, and he sent a tract to me. I still have that tract. I will never, never part with that. It says, “Others can; you cannot.” Young man, listen to me: I don’t go to malls. I don’t, and not because I am more holy than you. It is because I know what I am!
There is the story of one of the finest, greatest violinists in Europe playing his final concert as an old man. And when he finished, a young man, a violinist, walked up to him, and said, “Sir, I’d give my life to play like you.” And the old man said, “Son, I have given my life to play like me.”
You say, “I want the power of God on my life”—then something has got to go. “I want to know Him”—then some separation from the world has to occur!
Let me tell you something, young man. Everyone else is running around in all their little retreats and conferences, and getting together with group hugs and singing Kumbaya and everything else. Maybe you need to get alone in the wilderness with God, and fast for seven days on your knees studying the book of Psalms—just being alone with God, belonging to Him.
To be a man of God there has got to be a sense where sometimes even your wife, who is of your own flesh, one with you, she looks you in the eye and she knows: she can’t go where you are going.
Today in our churches, there is a silence on separation from the world. “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness?” (2Co 6:14)—nothing! Or “what fellowship has light with darkness?” (vs. 14)—nothing! Darkness is the opposite of God’s revelation. Or what harmony does Christ have with devils? (vs. 15)—nothing!
Or what has the believer in common with the unbeliever? (vs. 15)—nothing! The Lord says, “Come out from their midst” (vs. 17). Come out from the midst of what? Come out from the midst of lawlessness, darkness, satanic devices, and the life and worldliness of the unbeliever. Come out from it!
What a challenge. We find ourselves molded by the world more than His word.
Yes, that’s so true!