What God Has joined together, Sermon 3 of 10
The Right Road: Recognizing What God Has Joined Together vs What Man Has Joined Together
2 Corinthians 6:14–17
(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes for young children to answer are throughout sermon)Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Please turn to 2 Corinthians 6:14–17. 2 Corinthians 6:14–17 is going to be our foundational passage this morning. As you are turning there I want to remind us of the 8 foundational passages that we covered last week. They are passages that enlighten us to the revelation that God is the supreme matchmaker of His people for marriages. Those passages demonstrate the very important principle concerning "What God has Joined Together" which is the main theme title for this sermon series. We looked at Genesis 2:18-25. It is the record of the first marriage. The marriage of Adam and Eve was determined, designed, and delivered, by God. We examined Genesis 24:12-14. It is a powerful example. Abraham's servant discovers the bride that God determined for Isaac. The details explain how the union was created by God in His sovereign process through the concurrent actions of His people. We looked at Proverbs 18:22. It tells us that finding a wife is specifically favor that God has bestowed. Then there is Proverbs 19:14; it reveals to us that a prudent wife is specifically from God. We looked at the fact that God sometimes gives wives that are not prudent. Adam's wife, Eve, was not prudent. Hosea's wife, Gomer, was not prudent either. We looked at Judges 14:4. It is where Samson married a girl who was far from prudent; and yet the word of God tells us that Samson's marriage to her was "from Yahweh" which was clarified by the fact that God used Samson's marriage in His process of an opportunity against the Philistines. The marriage was later dissolved in the conflict after Samson's father-in law took Samson's wife and gave her to another man. The result of the strife was that the father and law and Samson's wife were burned to death by their own Philistine people. God had ordained all of this as His opportunity against the Philistines. Then we looked at Malachi 2:14-16 for more revelation of the sovereignty of God in determining marriages of His people. It is where God says that He specifically made the marriages of the people of Judah. Then we went to Matthew 19:4–9. It is there that we find that Jesus refers to the original marriage that God designed, saying, "therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate." It is the foundational principle. Then we examined 1 Corinthians 7:7-8 with 1 Corinthians 7:17 . It is where Paul states that singleness is a gift assigned from God, and marriage is a gift assigned from God. Finally we examined Ephesians 1:4–5 with 5:25–27, and Colossians 1:21-22; plus Romans 7:2-4 and 2 Corinthians 11:2. It is the revelation concerning the joining of Christ, the groom, with His elect church, the bride. It describes the ultimate marriage made in heaven. I want us to keep this Scriptural foundation in mind as I preach concerning another foundational aspect of this series. It is an immensely fundamental teaching for the road from single to spouse. The theme this morning, is,
What God Has joined together, Sermon 3 of 10
"The Right Road: Recognizing What God Has Joined Together vs What Man Has Joined Together"
[prayer]
Some time ago, I was driving down the road with a Christian friend of mine. I had known him for years. I knew him when he was single. I was there at his wedding. Now he was married. As we were driving along, I asked him how things were going with his marriage. I can still remember that intense, and troubled, look on his face as he answered me. He said that he made a big mistake marrying his wife. Then he told me that he should have married another young lady that we both knew. He said he should have done it when he had the chance. The other girl that my friend referred to is a full-time missionary. She manifests the sweetness of the fruits of the Spirit in an exceptional manner. With her pleasant personality, she is the kind of girl everyone (I mean every one) likes to be around. My friend liked to be around her too. In fact, he had liked being around her so much that he thought she would make a better wife than who he is married to now. He was very discouraged. I could sense his deep frustration as he continued to talk. I remember his words like it happened yesterday; he said,
"... but I know that even though I've made a mistake, God can work it all out."
I want us to think about that statement:
"I know that even though I've made a mistake, God can work it all out."
My friend was voicing the same doubts and regret that many Christians have when their marriages do not seem to fit the mold of perfection that they have in their minds concerning marriage. All of his ideas about finding the right mate, and achieving the perfect marriage, had failed him. Now he was completely disillusioned. In my friends own words, he thought he had made a "mistake." Yes, he put the God factor in there. He admitted that God could work out the so-called "mistake." But notice that God comes at the end of the equation. Now God is the one who can come in and fix it all. It certainly sounds pious. It reflects the thinking of multitudes of Christians in our generation. Unfortunately, the God factor is often put on the shelf for many Christians. As I continued driving along, I thought for a moment about some of the truths I had learned about God's will concerning marriage. So, I explained to him the principles that I want us to embrace this morning. The principles have to do with the title. Remember the theme of this sermon has to do with what I call the right road. It has to do with recognizing what God has joined together vs what man has joined together. I explained that there are two roads that my friend could go down right now. I said:
"The one you choose will determine your understanding of your circumstance and how you will handle it."
Then I firmly said,
"I'm telling you right now, you are on the wrong road."
Then I explained more,
"... but it's not too late for you to change. In fact, you must change to save your marriage."
Next, I asked him a very important question,
"Is your wife a Christian?"
After a few embittered comments about some of her shortcomings, (which are the same kinds of comments that a lot of married Christians can make about their Christian spouses) he finally admitted that she was a Christian. Without hesitation, I declared a Biblical truth to him that we all need to embrace. I said,
"Good, then you married God's special gift for you. You did not make a mistake!"
/The Wrong Road/
That is when I explained the details about the two roads. I told him that his wife is his gift from God. I explained that this meant that his marriage is a gift from God. I told him about the Scriptures that prove it. But there is more to it, so I continued to explain that on the road he is on now, he started out wanting a wife. With this ambition in mind, he decided he would shop around for the best deal he could find. In this process, he thought that with help from God he might find a "good deal." From there he would attempt to accomplish his idea of the perfect marriage. You say,
"Pastor Kerry. How could you say that to him with such surety?"
Well there a couple of reasons. One is that I knew my friend, so I was familiar with his personal quest for the so-called, "right" mate. The other reason is because he had done what is typical of what many Christians do in their endeavors to get married. They start out wanting a spouse. So they decide they will shop around for the best deal that they can find (There's nothing wrong with that, by the way; and we will talk about that some more in this series). Those same people think that with help from God they might find a "good deal." They finally find someone, and then they set out to accomplish their idea of the perfect marriage. At this point, I do not want to be taken wrongly, so listen carefully: Of course there is nothing wrong with trusting God. It is the fabric of what I'm preaching. There is also nothing wrong with seeking, and discerning, the best deal, (so to speak), for you. God wants us to use wisdom governed by Biblical principles for whatever we desire. God also wants us to seek Him in prayer as we line up our actions with His word. He wants us to do this while thanking Him for our gift of singleness. All of these things are true; but listen to what happened with my friend, because there is a vital lesson here for everyone. Later, he began to think of his marriage as a mistake when things did not turn out exactly like he wanted them to. Do you realize how many Christians wonder whether they made a mistake in their marriage simply because it is difficult? They think they have done something wrong now that they are having problems. It is so bad that the common sentiment goes something like this:
"We argue and disagree all the time, so I guess we should have never gotten married."
This kind of thinking is epidemic. The thinking also flows with what else I told my friend. I told him that I knew that he believed that if he had been given another chance, he could do a better job of acquiring a more perfect marriage partner for himself. When I shared these things with him, he agreed with me. I finally said,
"On this road you believe that you are the one who gave yourself your wife without giving God credit for His sovereign hand in your union."
Again, this is what a lot of Christians believe. They believe this even though they might mix a little bit of pious language in there to make it look like they are considering God. My friend said he agreed with me on this point too. I continued with his undivided attention.
/The Right Road/
Now remember, I was explaining about the two roads. So, keep this in mind. It is a principle. I explained that the other road he could go down starts out with recognizing that God is sovereign, and in His sovereignty, He brings a Christian man and a Christian woman together in marriage for His purposes. There are way too many purposes to list; but one reason is that we God makes us to be ministers in our marriages. God calls us to minister to our particular spouse whether we think our spouse is perfect, or not. We are missionary laborers who are called to the union that God has us in. There are numerous other reasons, but the point is that God does this for Himself, for His purposes, with His people. On this road, we are more like helpers in God's work in the creation of our marriages and what He wants to see accomplished. We are either the helpers, or we are the hinderers. So, in this sense, we have a lot to do with our marriages--but not everything. I told him that the thing he needed to understand about this road is that God does not make mistakes. What God has joined together is perfect. This fact does not change just because it does not happen to look perfect to my friend, his spouse, to you, to me, or any one else. Nothing changes the principle. In fact, the same principle crosses over to other aspects of Christianity. For example, someone gets a desire to go into the mission field. So they pray about it. They desire to go out to some remote place to serve the Lord there. They may have all kinds of wonderful dreams of what the perfect mission field is. They may have a vision of what a successful ministry is. But then they get out there, and there is nothing but intense persecution, pain, drudgery, and a kind of loneliness that few people can relate to. It is followed by day after day of hardships that wear them out physically, and emotionally. Year after year after year slowly creeps by and nobody comes to saving faith in Christ as Lord and Savior. The man that is called the "Father of Modern Day Missions;" William Carey exemplified this. He left his profession in England to go to the completely unreached country of India in 1793. His wife was hesitant. She did not want to go. She went anyway, but only if she could take her sister with her. They arrived in India and soon William Carey found himself lacking money to buy food. He had to support his wife, her sister, and several children. He had to deal with it. But listen; shortly thereafter, his wife went insane. She had to be tied to a bed as she screamed relentlessly for years in blithering madness. His five year old son also died shortly after arriving in India. Missionaries are not super heroes with robotic minds. These kinds of mental, and emotional, strains were almost unbearable to William Carey. Truly, his faith carried him, but this does not mean that he did not suffer. There was also the length of the work. Carey shared the gospel with Indian people for seven years of rejection before he saw the first man come to Christ. Even on that first baptism day which was a celebration of a brand-new life in Christ, while they were at the river, Carey's wife could be heard raging in her insanity off in the distance. So, what's my point? William Carey's mission calling was perfect. What God joins together for his reasons is always perfect. William Carey's marriage was also perfect. What God has joined together in holy matrimony is always perfect. This fact never changes just because it does not happen to look perfect to you, to me, or any one else. So the principle applies to various aspects of Christianity; and I could go on and on with illustrations, but I think you get the point. But I want us to think about the great depth of why this road is of such importance for marriage. It is on this road that we are mindful that God gives us our mates for His reasons. Now stay with me, because this is so key: Those reasons are not always the same reasons that we have in mind when we are pursuing someone toward marriage. Please make note of the cornerstone truth that I shared with my friend, and keep it in mind; I told him that,
"The very reasons that God gave your wife to you are causing problems for you because you have not received your perfect marriage as a gift from Him for His reasons."
The irony is that my friend realized that he had made a mistake. The problem is that according to the Scriptures, he had been wrong about identifying what the mistake was, and when it had begun. His real mistake started way back before he ever met his wife. It is the same mistake that multitudes of Christians make. His mistake had to do with his perspective. Like so many Christians, he had trusted God's sovereignty in other areas of his life, but he did not understand God's perspective on singleness and marriage enough to trust His sovereign will in that area too. A contributing factor to his problem was that he was not familiar with certain ways that God operates in our lives. He used what amounted to a bargain hunter's approach for discerning who was the best mate for himself. He acted like he was involved in a kind of game of strategy that had rules that looked more like a game of chance. He believed that God had not designed only one unique individual to be his "Miss Right." In fact, he believed that there were probably millions of Miss Rights out there for him to choose from. Of course there are billions of young women in the world that can be pursued for marriage. But there is only one "Miss Right" which is the principle of the Right Road. I want to make sure you understand each word I am saying so that I am not misunderstood this morning in respect to this vital teaching. Though there are millions of potential mates out there, there is only one "Mr. or Miss Right." But because my friend believed that there were probably millions of people who could be the right one, he just needed to play the game properly, and needed to rely on cunning and odds to find, and win, one of those women's heart, while hoping that he had made all the right moves--even in courtship where he stayed chaste, and even in going to the girl's father and asking permission for her hand in marriage. He did all of that according to textbook perfection. Mix in the ingredient of prayer, and he thought chances would even be better that he would win a wonderful prize. He did that too. In fact he even had me and others pray for him. The point is that there was only one "Miss Right" for my friend to be married to. She, of course, was the one that he finally married. He's still married to her today, with seven wonderful children, and a vibrant God glorifying family life. The things I just shared are important, so I'll magnify them a bit. This seems to be where most people get tangled up in this whole area of God's sovereignty in marriage. Essentially, we recognize that there is a vast ocean of Christians in this world. Many of them are potential mates. Many of them may appear to be a potential mate for you. In fact you will pick and choose from the vast ocean. Here is a further revelation; someone will always pick and choose for you who you will marry. It may be you. It may be parents. The main point though, is that someone will always choose who you will marry; and the choice will always be made from the vast ocean. But this fact does not nullify your choice of what God has joined together in the union. The point is that you are definitely an active participant in the mate finding process. Remember, someone will always pick and choose who you will marry. That is why there are so many so-called experts out there today who will give you their mate-finding philosophies to match you up with some kind of an "ideal profile." Unfortunately a lot of the mate finding philosophies weigh down spouse seekers with various methods and formulas that are backed by a thin scriptural base; or none at all. Yet there is nothing wrong with having a mate finding philosophy; that is, if it is based upon Scripture. There is nothing wrong with having an ideal profile in mind for a future spouse. God wants us to use discernment. Because of this fact, please follow everything that I am saying very closely. There is an irony where many of those other philosophies have a tendency to diminish the prime importance of the Spirit's guidance as is expressed in the word of God. So, what happens is that the mate finding philosophies can promote doubt later on in marriages that are not perceived as perfect. This is an irony because people think that those methods are supposed to insure surety--but they don't. This is what happened to my friend. Doubts came anyway. It can happen to you too. Once things start going badly, or you experience bumps on the road, then the thoughts can begin to haunt you;
"Did I make a mistake?"
"Maybe I should have married Tina when I had the chance."
"Maybe I should have waited for the next guy."
"Maybe I should have married that girl I knew back in the day--the one that paid all the attention to me."
Or how about this sin laden one:
"Maybe I'll get a divorce and find something better."
Or this one that is based upon humanism and fallacious reasoning:
"Maybe I can find someone who is more 'compatible' with me."
This leaves us, then, with more questions:
"How can I always be certain that I have found the right mate?"
"How can I know whether I made a mistake, or not?"
The answer is found in God's way. And the beauty about it is that it transcends all mate finding philosophies and formulas. Make a note of what I am about to say, because I am going to give the nutshell statement on God's way for Christians to guarantee that they have chosen the right person to marry:
Whenever one Christian single marries another Christian single, they have married the exact person that God has for them and you can be absolutely sure that their marriage has been destined, designed, and developed by creator God, and is perfect.
The same principle applied to Old Covenant Israelites too. The same principle applied to the marriage of William Carey with Dorothy Carey. She did not want to go to India, but she did. He did not want her to go insane, but she did. In Carey's journal, he demonstrated that he loved her, and cared for her as his gift from God all the way to the end when she finally died in 1807. Let me repeat the principle again. As I do, I want you to pay attention to each word because each word has been chosen very carefully to bring out the truth that is gleaned from God's word--again: Whenever one Christian single marries another Christian single, they have married the exact person that God has for them and you can be absolutely sure that their marriage has been destined, designed, and developed by creator God and is perfect. This foundational truth is founded upon scriptures that we have already covered. It is also founded upon some more that we will cover in this series (I plan on covering divorce and remarriage later in the series. The same goes for "abuse" cases in marriage. I plan on covering other tough issues involved in this rule).
/What Man Joins Together/
With this principle in mind, then, I think it is important that we examine what man has joined together--not God, but man. According to rejecting God's preceptive will, the rule can be broken, and it often is. In this New Covenant age of the body of Christ (the church), it is necessary that we follow the preceptive qualification for God's way of finding the perfect mate. Following the simple rule will always ensure that a Christian will have chosen and married God's perfect and complete choice. Disasters occur when we seek to operate through contradictory principles or preferences. Ironically, when we just want to do what we want to do because we think it is smart, or we want to emphasize our own philosophical principles and preferences in our decisions, the result can be a chaotic mess of disillusionment and confusion. All this happens because of what man has joined together. Before I reveal the rule, I want to share another illustration of another young man that I encountered. This particular man faithfully labored for over ten years in annual evangelization campaigns aimed at troubled youth. He seemed to me to have a pretty good understanding of the ways of Christ. I was particularly impressed with the fact that he could quote the whole book of Proverbs from memory. He told me that it takes about 3 hours to completely speak out the book of Proverbs by starting in Proverbs 1 and repeating it aloud to Proverbs 31. That is amazing to me. I was taken by surprise though by his comments to me concerning his desire to find the perfect wife. I remember how serious he was when he said,
"I want a girl that's going to turn me on;"
That was his exact words. Then he proceeded to describe physical features. He was talking about the fantasy woman he had been searching for. Motioning with his hands, he continued describing her figure in great detail. I was uncomfortable with what I was seeing and hearing, but I listened. He even had his dream girl's height calculated to the inch. He continued with his description, mentioning various actresses and models he had seen as he pieced together a paper doll in his mind that, in his own words, would be the "good deal" for himself. That's what he said--"good deal." In fact, his usage of this term is why I have intentionally been using it since the beginning of this sermon too. There were other attributes that his digitally enhanced poster-girl would possess. I was waiting for him to explain her spiritual attributes. Instead, he said;
"She's going to be submissive and hardworking."
He said it with such exactness. It did not take me very long to discern that he did not want a Biblically defined wife who represents the church in all her glory. What he really wanted was an automaton that looked like a supermodel. Believe it or not, what he had said to me up to that point was not very unusual. I have heard numerous single Christian males voice similar desires. The world's system has influenced them so much that they confuse secular standards with true beauty and perfection. Of course, we can not deny physical attractiveness. We can not deny that it is something that is desirable. But, there is another principle that we must embrace as Christians. It will help us step into the arena of the way God views things. To God, all Christians are beautiful in their cleansing regeneration in Christ. It is called the application of God's grace. Everyone else is ugly to God. It does not matter how submissive and hardworking a lost person is, that person is grotesque in the sight of God. It does not matter how much of a financial provider a lost person is, or how protective, or how nice, because they are dark in their hearts. They are dead in their sins. There are some people who may scoff at this, but this is an accurate assessment. The reason that non-Christians are ugly to God, is because they are people who are still in the image of fallen Adam. In a very real sense, they look like sin because they are not covered with the grace of God. But when a person is regenerated, according to 1 Corinthians 15:45–50, that person becomes a new creation. What happens is that they take on the perfectly beautiful image of the last Adam, Jesus Christ. That person literally looks like the righteousness of God in Christ. All of this is important for keeping ourselves balanced with the way God thinks. Women set up similar standards of handsomeness, ruggedness, sensitivity, or whatever. The so-called beauty of a rich man who has a lot money and material possessions is another way. But, the same principle on how God sees things still applies. Now stay with me, because there is also nothing in Scripture to indicate that it is wrong to be pleased with the way someone looks. It is not wrong to expect provision from a working husband. It is naive to think that these are not going to be factors involved in attraction. But by the same token, it is important to realize that the lost world culture has created a standard of carnal beauty, and attraction, that less than one percent of the total population is able to match up to. Think about that. Think about the fact that most of that one percent have faked their way into the quasi-elite class anyway. The lost world culture's standard of beauty does not last long though, even for the one percent. Age and sin manifest themselves like clockwork and the ugliness of the Adamic curse drags the elites back down to reality. Unfortunately, it seems that many Christians, like the young man I just mentioned, are easily blinded by this temporal kind of deceptive concern. It could be statuesque looks, material riches, fame, or some other carnal desire, but it all equates to looking at things through the lusts that come from the world's standards. In 1 John 2:15–17 it is made clear that lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life are the substance of the world's standards. This is a huge problem for many who are on the road from single to spouse. The very test standards that they thought would reveal the "good deal" turn out to be the biggest blinders to what God has decided is the true test standard. I'm talking about what is from God; and beauty, submissiveness, and being a hard worker is not the foundation. They are not the fruits of the Spirit. I remember that while I listened to my friend speak, I noticed a marked absence of certain vital traits from his list describing his "good deal." Namely, he never mentioned one item of spiritual substance. What I am about to tell you is really disheartening. He finally shared with me his misguided opinion that he did not think it was necessary for him to marry a Christian as long as she was; and I quote:
"submissive, good looking and a hard worker."
He told me that he believed that such attributes would override her lack of Christianity. Now think about this because this gets down to the core of this sermon. The man was on the wrong road. Seriously, a so-called Christian man says he wants a submissive, good looking, hard worker for his wife, and those things are supposedly substitutes for the necessity to be saved. The problem is that the man had fallen into deception because he had designed his own gift on his own terms. He was looking for someone who represented a false church in his own picture of marriage. Since he thought he could not discover his design among the body of Christ, what did he do? He began looking to the unsaved world for his mate. To compensate for his desire to unequally join himself with an unbeliever, he added submission to his list--equating it with true harmony. He, like many other Christian singles, did not want what God joins together. What did he want? He wanted what man joins together. By the way, he finally found his wife. They divorced a few years later. So this leads us to the next rule to follow in the road of surety in choosing God's marriage made in heaven. The rule to follow in 100% surety of choosing God's marriage made in heaven is not such a deep mystery. It can be summed up in this simple exhortation. For the sake of memory, I've decide to call it the "platinum rule." Here's the platinum rule:
Do not be unequally bound together with an unbeliever, but rather be equally bound together with a believer.
Now that was pretty simple wasn't it? Let me repeat it again; "Do not be unequally bound together with an unbeliever, but rather be equally bound together with a believer." Let's look at the passage I asked everyone to turn to. It is 2 Corinthians 6:14-17. It is where Paul the apostle makes this requirement from God very clear. He says,
"Do not be bound [think of yoked] together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?
@1 God does not want Christians to be bound __________________________ with unbelievers. 2 Corinthians 6:14-17
For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: 'I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.'" 2 Corinthians 6:14-17
@2 We Christians are the ______________________ of the living God. 2 Corinthians 6:14-17
Notice the words used by Paul in his questions of contrast. He is describing what the binders actually should be in an equally bound relationship. They are: commonality, fellowship, agreement, and harmony. The Spirit is saying that those things are not there in an unequally bound relationship. James gives a similar rebuke. It is a serrated edge that shows Christians just how seriously God views such situations when the Spirit urges;
"You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." James 4:4
@3 Friendship with the world is ____________________ toward God. James 4:4
I want us to think about this. When a Christian seeks marriage with a non-Christian, what are the implications from God's word to us? That person is shortsighted concerning the fact that he or she is not only in disharmony with God, but is actually being hostile toward God. That person has been deceived, and worse, is walking headlong into, and through, their deception. The Lord gives us further insight concerning what is expected concerning equal bonding. He shows us through the apostles. When the apostle Paul declared his right to have a wife in 1 Corinthians 9:15, he clarified that she must be a "sister" in Christ. A sibling in Christ is the clarifier for the equal yoke. In 1 Peter 3:7, Peter exhorts Christian husbands to grant their Christian wives honor because they are "fellow heirs with you of the gracious gift of life." In 1 Corinthians 7:39, Paul instructs that if a widow remarries, she is free to marry whom she wishes, but only in Christ the Lord. She must only marry a Christian. This is why Paul gave the instruction in 1 Corinthians 7:13-15 that when someone becomes a Christian in a marriage, and the other spouse stays unsaved, then the unsaved spouse is allowed to leave if they want to. Paul says that the Christian is not bound in those cases. Why? Because the union is an unequal yoke. Paul knows those marriages already existed, so he does not say to divorce the unsaved person. He says to stay with them if the other person wants to. Paul is giving permission to allow non-Christians to stay with the newly saved spouse in those cases. But if the non-Christian wants to divorce, then let them go. The point is that the apostles clearly understood the importance of the platinum rule. They made sure that it was made known for discipleship, and grounding, the saints.
Today, the church is experiencing an epidemic. Christians are willingly, and knowingly, entering into unequally bound relationships. This even happens among Christians who claim to know better. Take for example another young lady I know of who has a heart for mission work. While visiting a missions school, I had the opportunity to counsel her about the relationship she was having with an unsaved man she was planning to marry. As we talked, I explained various principles found within God's Word. During our conversation, she said that she understood the principles I had shared with her. She told me that she believed in the platinum rule. I thought the counseling went well, so I prayed with her and then I left. Some months later I learned that she was traveling on a mission outreach program, and yet she was still planning on marrying her unsaved boyfriend back home. The most discouraging thing about this was that the mission organization's leadership knew of her plans, but they continued to keep her on as a missionary worker to young single people who were in need of stable ministers--ones who taught not to unequally bind with unbelievers, and refused to personally do so themselves. The point is that God says not to be unequally bound together with non-Christians in marriage. To do so, is to join what man has brought together--not God. On the other hand, whenever one Christian single marries another Christian single, they have married the exact person that God has ordered for them and you can be absolutely sure that their marriage has been destined, designed, and developed by creator God and is perfect. This principle has been the essence of this sermon. It is based upon the 8 Scriptures that reveal to us that God is a Matchmaker. He is the one who joins His people together for His reasons. Again, those Scriptures are Genesis 2:18-25, Genesis 24:12-14, Proverbs 18:22, Proverbs 19:14, Judges 14:4, Malachi 2:14-16, Matthew 19:4–9, 1 Corinthians 7:7-8, and Ephesians 1:4–5 with 5:25–27 and Colossians 1:21-22; plus Romans 7:2-4 and 2 Corinthians 11:2 It is also based upon 2 Corinthians 6:14-17, 1 Corinthians 7:13-15 James 4:4, 1 Corinthians 9:15, 1 Peter 3:7, 1 Corinthians 7:39. I urge us all to embrace the principles of the right road. Remember, the first one:
Whenever one Christian single marries another Christian single, they have married the exact person that God has ordered for them and you can be absolutely sure that their marriage has been destined, designed, and developed by creator God and is perfect.
Remember the platinum rule:
Do not be unequally bound together with an unbeliever, but rather be equally bound together with a believer.
Learn them, live them, and teach them. I strongly encourage all the parents here to make these things known to our children from the scriptural basis that I have given. My prayer is that we will instill in our young ones that the right road is the road that will carry them through one of the most important relationship decisions that they will make.
@1 God does not want Christians to be bound __________________________ with unbelievers. 2 Corinthians 6:14-17
@2 We Christians are the ______________________ of the living God. 2 Corinthians 6:14-17
@3 Friendship with the world is ____________________ toward God. James 4:4
