2 Corinthians 7:1
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Good evening, church. Today, our study will be focused on 2 Corinthians 7.1. Please turn your Bibles to that text so that we can read it in a few moments. But first, I have a little secret about me that no one in this room knows except for my wife. It was a rotten, regrettable sin that I did when I was a young boy. My secret unfolds at the convenience store at the corner of Hikes Lane and Klondike Lane. Our neighborhood that I grew up in had a lot of boys my age, and we were always up to something. I was the younger boy in our gang, if you could call it a gang, and my older brother was part of this group as well. It was decided that we would ride our bikes up to the store, run in, steal candy, and ride off. We did just that, and we got away with it,
we thought. We performed our one and only heist because the gang was about to be dissolved. fortunately for one of us, for us, one of our friends, guilt overcame him, and he confessed to his father what he had done. In those days, all the neighbors knew each other, and within a day, all the parents knew exactly what had happened. My brother and I came in for dinner that very evening after the story was out our father was standing at the door waiting for us he asked if we had any sin we needed to confess we stood there with a dumb look on our face for what seemed like hours but it was probably five seconds. And the guilt of my sin overcame me. We confessed it all. We confessed our sin
to our father. My dad was a big believer in corporal punishment. And we knew what we had coming. And it was rightly deserved. At that moment, my brother and I started down the path of cleansing our soul. My dad simply stated that he was very ashamed of us and that we were nothing but thieves. He then promptly sent us to our room stating we should think about our punishment and we should also think about what we deserve. My brother and I cried as we went to our room.
We were thieves, and we knew it. And we knew what was about to happen. We were ashamed of ourselves. Our father and our mother, as promised, did show up in our room. But their punishment was not what we expected, especially from a father who believed in corporal punishment. My mom and dad were Christians. They sat us down and explained to us our sin. They simply opened their Bibles to Exodus 20, 15, and read, You shall not steal.
They told us we had to go and meet the store owner, tell him that we were thieves, ask for forgiveness, and pay him back. They also instructed us that we were grounded to our street block for a month. That was it. We were shocked. Well, we did what we were told. We went to the store with my dad and met the owner. We confessed our sin, told him that we were thieves, and we paid him back for the candy that we stole.
He forgave us. A month passed, and we were then freed from the confines of our block. This chapter in our lives was over. So let's read the text. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1. Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of the Lord, in the fear of God. My two points to our lesson are, what are the promises and pursuit of holiness?
Again, what are the promises and the pursuit of holiness? As stated, my brother and I were guilty. We deserved whatever punishment our father would give us. We confessed our sin, and our father was gracious. He did punish us for that sin, but we deserved much more. I can tell you I grew in that moment. I cleansed myself of the sin of stealing. I have never knowingly stole anything from anyone since that time.
And I didn't get that whooping. So, 2 Corinthians was written to the church at Corinth, a city that was rebuilt from its ruin around 44 B.C. It had developed into a major city when Paul visited it around 49 A.D. With a population approaching 80,000, it was a city of tourism, sex, religious pluralism, and wealth. This presented a big challenge to Paul's style of simply presenting the gospel.
But it succeeded, and the church was established. Unfortunately, the church became divided, and this was addressed on several occasions. However, there was still some division that greatly concerned Paul. He found that his apostleship and authority was still questioned. They questioned why his speech was so lackluster compared to others. Why did Paul not accept money for his services? Why did Paul not have letters of recommendation?
And was Paul really collecting money for the poor? Paul felt compelled to research his authority as an apostle and to address his personal integrity. He then penned 2 Corinthians. Paul starts his greeting to the Corinthians with the goal to preserve his apostleship and preserve the church. He writes in chapter 1, verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. This simply implies that if you challenge his word as an apostle of Christ Jesus, you challenge the word of God. Therefore, you'd better listen.
Today, we are still the church of God, Paul called out in his letter. Paul's letter certainly applies to us in this present age. Therefore, we should listen and apply it to ourselves. Let me read our verse again. Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. Because Paul references promises, we need to go back a few verses to chapter 6, verses 14 through 18, to understand what these promises are.
Okay, point one, the promises. we read first a warning and then the promise. Verse 14, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Israel or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. Let me stop there and point out this is a warning to the church. It's a warning to our congregation and individuals to separate ourselves from evil. Because when we do, God promises, starting back in verse 16. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them.
I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, go out from their midst and be baptized and be separated from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing. Then I will welcome you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. This promise is big. It's for those that have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
We are his people, his sons, his daughters, and we are adopted unto him, Redeemed and justified by him, called and chosen by him, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit so as to live a holy life before him. This is his glorious promise to us. For those that have not received his promise, you need to accept Jesus Christ as your King, your Lord, your Savior. He is God's Son, And you need to put your faith and trust in him.
If you have not done this, it is our hope that you would start to deeply consider that this evening. Today is the day. Brothers and sisters, while we are to be separated from evilness in our world, let's be reminded that we live in this world. And we are to be a welcoming church. Our church is open to all so that anyone who walks in our doors may hear and also see the gospel working in us.
I see this every time our doors are open. We truly greet one another in brotherly love. We welcome people of all social and ethnic backgrounds so they may see us open the infallible word of God, read from it, and rightly apply it to our lives. Beloved, welcoming does not mean we preach a different gospel or suggest that living in certain sin is fine.
We simply preach what God has taught us through His Word, led by His Holy Spirit, just like Paul did. We preach His Word clearly when it is in season and out of season. This brings me to point two. We are in the pursuit of holiness. We have the assurance of God's presence in us for those that believe in Christ as their Lord and Savior. And our sanctification process starts at that point and continues for our whole life.
Let me be clear. We do not sanctify ourselves. Our sanctification or the pursuit of holiness is achieved by the work of the Holy Spirit, which he does through all types of means of grace, such as hearing the word of God, the communion of the saints, self-examination, self-denial, watchfulness, and prayer. On a broader level, our congregation seeks to strive for holiness by many means.
We diligently preach God's word in the expository manner. We open God's word, we read it, we explain it, we apply it to our lives, and present the gospel clearly at every Sunday. We believe God's word is completely sufficient for our lives. As a congregation, we have a written statement of faith that details out our firm beliefs as a congregation that concerns the Trinity, Scripture, the fall of men, salvation, and sanctification. And that is only a partial list. We have a written covenant that we agree to when we seek others, when we seek membership, that states how we should strive to act with each other in brotherly love. You know, when I first joined 3rd, I just read it like any other document but now it warms my heart when when we read this together it is so important there are
many other things that we do but I want to cover membership in a bit more detail our congregation pursues holiness by exercising the keys of the kingdom we are a congregational led church we strive to ensure every new member has our same beliefs. While we can't separate ourselves from the world, we are in this world to share the gospel. We should not yoke ourselves in covenant with non-believers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Our Wednesday night meetings are packed with heavy decisions on membership and also on elders. Remember the elders we vote in recommend new elders and new members. We must, with the help of God, strive to make thoughtful and wise decisions on membership. I have been involved in five
different congregations over my life, and three of those congregations are no longer in existence. I've actually talked to a member of my past church who asked me if I really believed in the virgin birth. He was a member. We belong to a church where the gospel was not presented in a clear manner every Sunday when it had previously been done that way. We have friends that belong to a church and they told me they only have to believe in the parts of the Bible they like. That is painful. We must always remain diligent in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The gates of hell will not prevail over Christ's church, but the evil one can wreak havoc in a congregation. We must remain diligent. On a personal level, many of the same things we do as a whole filter down to our own personal sanctification. We spend time in His Word by listening to our preaching and by personal study. We are sanctified in this process. We spend time in prayer both corporately and personally. I had a wonderful uncle, A Christian and a strong man of faith, and in his 50s, he lost his business, he lost his farm, he lost everything.
He went bankrupt. He did not know this, but I was diligently watching him and his faith. He never wavered. His reliance on prayer brought him through. Later in life, he told me how much he grew in these trials. And I told him how much more I grew in watching him live out his life of faith and prayer. We are sanctified in this process.
We spend time discipling each other. Max Stiles and I get together on occasion and we talk about life, our ups and downs, our children, but mostly our grandchildren. he is such a helper to me we pray for each other and then off we go brothers and sisters jump in and share your life our congregation is the safest place you will be in and do you know we are all actually concerned for your soul and your salvation it's a friendly place where else can you get that? Jump in. We are sanctified in this process. We are taught valuable lessons by our parents and friends, and we are sanctified in this process. When we sin, our conscience by the Holy Spirit convicts us. As we continue in that sin, the conviction grows. Hear that and feel it,
confess it, and repent of it, that sanctifies us. Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of the body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of the Lord. Well, I want to go back to my story that I opened up with. About 12 years ago, my wife and I were having a company Christmas party at our house, and really, I mean, Kelly really decorates the place up for Christmas. There were about 60 people there. Tables of food, the candles were burning, the lights were dim, the atmosphere was great.
All we needed was for John Bizanis to be playing the piano in the background. There was a person at the party that I did not know, and he was not an employee. He came with somebody else so I naturally introduced myself to him and he seemed like a nice enough guy and that was that sometime later that evening he walked back up to me with a serious look on his face and he asked me if I was the same kid who came into a convenience store years ago and told his father that I was a thief well that took me back just a little bit needless to say so while I did not see him there on that day over 50 years ago he was there in the background and he also remembered it well he quickly jumped in and told me that he had been talking to my father that evening and they had somehow made that connection that happened you know 40 some
years ago. We both got a good laugh out of that. But as I was thinking in my wrap-up to this devotion, I realized that this same story plays out in our life over and over again. We sin. We confess our sin. We repent and ask for forgiveness. And as Christians saved by Christ, we are forgiven. And we are slowly purified by the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. But there is one in the background that is unseen, who loves to remind us of our past sin. Satan brings it up in our conscience over and over and over. Satan whispers in our ears, are you really forgiven? You are not worthy to be forgiven. He whispers, you should always be ashamed of your past sin. For some, this can lead to anxiety, depression, and even a
question about your faith. Psalms 103.12 states, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Remember that. Hebrews 6.12 says, for I will be merciful toward their inequities and I will remember their sins no more. Let me remind you of God's promise to those that have put their faith in Christ. I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them. I will be their God and they will be my people. I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.
Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of the body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of the Lord. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the plan of salvation you gave us. We thank you for the Holy Spirit that works through our congregation as a whole and through us individually. We thank you that you dwell in us and that we are truly your sons and daughters.
May we deeply recognize these blessings you have given to us. It's in Christ's name that I pray, amen.