Do Not Yoke Up With Unbelievers

Here in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, again, I think this is vitally important because this is dealing not with what Donald Trump, the king, as the president is dealing with, this is dealing with eternal things, and you can't get more important than that. So here in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, let me do a little bit of review, and then we'll jump in here and look at this passage. We've been talking some about approving ourselves as ministers of God, and that is approving ourselves before this present evil world, people out there in the world looking at you and not saying that church is full of hypocrites, but saying, those people are real, and that's the real deal, and I trust that people look at your life and say, hey, there's the real deal there.

I know I've heard people say about some of you, there's the real deal, you know, these are people who are real, and so that's a good testimony to have, that you're the real deal, and the way that we approve ourselves in chapter 6 and verse 4 talks about approving ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience, and that's kind of an interesting start there, but he talks about many different ways we're patient through all these things, and then last week I talked about the rest of the way we approve ourselves by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well-known, as dying and behold we live, as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things, and so this idea of how to approve yourselves before this present evil world. Now he's going to move into something else with regards to the world out there, and that is here in verse number 14. We're going to talk about this idea of be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

Be not. Those people out there, you need to approve yourselves before them by all of these things, but I also want to remind you about how to respond to them, and that is to be not yoked or unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. And the idea of a yoke, I think you all understand what a yoke is.

A yoke is, and I'm not a farmer, but a yoke is an instrument that ties at least two, sometimes three and four animals together into one solid yoke so that they can pull together. The word is defined a coupling of two or more. For example, if I have two pipes, PC pipes, and I bring them together and I put a coupling on there and I glue them together, I've made those two now one piece, and they can't be separate, they can't go in different directions like they could when they were separated.

I've coupled them together. I've put them in some sort of a yoke. And so the yoke here is putting two or three or four together.

So you see this amongst the Amish, you have two ox that are yoked together and pulling a wagon. Or you have two horses that are yoked together, and it's oftentimes for the purpose of work. But notice what it says here in verse 14, be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

The idea of an unequal yoke. A yoke that is unequal means that you're putting two different animals of different nature in that yoke. For example, I've never seen this, maybe you have.

You'd see maybe a horse with an ox in the same yoke. There's two different natures there, two different attitudes, two different speeds, two different many things, because they're two different natures. And so you don't put yokes together that are unequal.

Two different natures. You would not put, for example, a chicken in a yoke with a dog. That wouldn't work out very well.

You wouldn't put a rabbit in the yoke with a turtle. That wouldn't work out well either. You have two different natures in the same yoke.

And so when you enter a yoke with someone of a different nature, that's an unequal yoke. And so in verse 14 it says be you not unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. Now what's an unbeliever? His nature? Is his nature different than mine? Yes it is.

As a matter of fact, just in the chapter before we learned, you are a new creation in Christ Jesus. You're a new creation. And you don't get into yokes with those who are unconverted.

They have an old nature. They have the old man. They don't have the new creation.

And so the idea of being yoked up with someone of a different nature is to be unequally yoked together. And he tells us which that is. That's with an unbeliever.

So a believer and an unbeliever should not be yoked together. Now there's many ways, and maybe I can throw this out to you, thinking in my own life of how we yoke together with people. And let me just give you some examples and maybe if you have one I'll call on you and you can give me an example of a way that we yoke up with people in this world today.

The first one is one of the most obvious ones and that is the marriage yoke. The marriage yoke. You get into the yoke.

My daughter hopefully is going to get married here, Lord willing, to a young man in May. And so they're going to be put into this marriage yoke. Two will be tied together.

He hath made two one. And they'll be put into a yoke. And so marriage is probably the most important one we could talk about here this morning.

When you get married, we'll talk about that in a minute, but when you get married, that's a yoke. And be not unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. I'd like you to turn back with me to 1 Corinthians once here.

Just to comment on this before we get past this subject here. 1 Corinthians chapter 7. When Paul comes to Corinth at the very beginning, most of them are heathen. There's no believers there.

He starts to preach. And people have already entered into marriage covenants and they're husbands and wives and you know he's out preaching and maybe he's preaching one day and he's preaching the gospel and some man talks to him and says, I believe in Jesus. I want to receive the gospel.

And so this man is born again and he's baptized and he gets a new nature and now he goes home to a wife who is lost and a heathen and doesn't want anything to do with his religion, this new religion that he's got. So now he's got a situation where he didn't enter into this yoke. He didn't enter it.

It says, do not enter into any yokes that are unequal. He was already in a yoke when he was converted and now he has made his yoke, in a sense, unequal. And Paul addresses that about what do you do about that? And I just want to throw that out.

It says here in 1 Corinthians 7 verse 12, but to the rest speak I, not the Lord. If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. In other words, your vow to God, your commitment at the beginning, you hold to that.

You cannot say, well, I'm not supposed to be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. So now that I'm saved and you're an unbeliever, you get out of my life. No, that's not the will of God here.

Verse 13, and to the women which hath a husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let him not put her away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Else were your children unclean, but now are they holy.

And so that's one thing to remember here. You know, I'm going to encourage you all at the end of this sermon here, and I think it's the right thing because it's what the Bible does is to encourage you to drop any unequal yokes that you have in your life. And yet, an exception here is that Paul is saying, but if you've made a marriage vow and you are in a marriage with an individual and you get converted and the other one is not converted, that does not give you the right to say, see you later.

I cannot be unequally yoked together in this marriage. Let's throw that out so that nobody gets any different wrong ideas. So marriage, I think of marriage as one of the most important yokes that we get ourselves into.

Another one is a business. People get together, especially men, get in business one with another. They make yokes.

So if you're in business, I was in business with a brother, John Lonecker for nine or so years, and we were partners in the business. And I know I've been warring most of my Christian upbringing about being careful when you get into a business partnership of all the troubles that can come from business partnerships. But the Bible does encourage us to, to yoke together.

I mean, Jesus invited us into his yoke and his brother Caleb is sharing here this morning. We, we are not only love to him, but we need to love one another and, and to yoke up together. And I, I enjoyed the nine years that John and I were working together.

I can say this before the Lord and my wife can testify to this. We never had a disagreement in nine years. And that's a, that's an amazing thing because we were handling hundreds of thousands of dollars.

We were buying and selling houses and, and there was a lot of big decisions and there was a lot of things going on there, but there was, I look back and say, I don't think I can remember any conflict at all. It was nothing. Everything just went smooth.

It was a good yoke. It was a good yoke to work and to work with. And that's the way it ought to be.

It's a Christian, brothers, sisters working together. It ought to be a good yoke. And, and I don't want to discourage anyone from being a partner with a brother in the Lord.

And so businesses, partnerships are ways that we yoke up. Sometimes people make investments together. You know, I don't have enough money maybe to buy something, piece of land.

And you know, brother Chris comes and says, Hey, let's, let's yoke together and let's put our names together and buy this piece of land. I think that's a fine thing to do brother to brother, but don't yoke yourself with an unbeliever in such an agreement like that and make an investment with an unbeliever. That's what God is saying.

And we'll see why you don't do that here in just a little bit. Friendships would be, would be another thing. I'm, I'm yoking myself together.

You're going to be my dear friend. We're going to have an intimate friendship together. Those kinds of yokes, who are your friends and who do you yoke up with? Anybody else have things in your life when you think about your life? I'll just open it up here that you yoke up for certain things in life that you do.

Raise your hand and just participate if you want this morning. I gave you four examples. Is anything, anything come to your mind about yoking up together with other people? Yes.

That's an interesting thought. To kind of blend your heart into what someone else has put together and you kind of cooperate and, and yoke up with it. All right, anybody else? Well, here we go.

Let's keep going. 2 Corinthians here. We're going to learn a little bit about this yoking, not yoking up here in verse chapter 6 verse 14.

Be ye not unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. And again, the reason why is because their nature is different. You want to get into something and I've seen these things happen.

You get into the situation where you get an unbeliever and a believer yoked up together into a project, into a marriage, into a all kinds of things. You can see some fireworks, some real problems. People are heading in two different directions.

And that's what's happening or what Paul's going to bring out here in the rest of 14 and 15 or even down into 16. Let's read it again. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? Now there's five questions he asks, kind of rapid order here. What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? That word Belial is another word for Satan. Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? There's five questions he asks here.

And these questions all are surrounding a word that is a descriptive word of two coming together as one. For example, he talks about fellowship. He talks about communion.

He talks about concord. He talks about parts or participation. And the last one here he talks about is agreement.

What fellowship, what concord, what participation, what agreement, what do you have in common? What commonality do you have between two different natures? First one is fellowship. What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? How can you blend together two sets of morals? Righteousness and unrighteousness. How do you bring those together and have fellowship with those who have conflicting morals? Now that's one of the challenges like I'm sure there in Corinth, here you are, you're a man, you married this lady and your morals were, you know, we were in the bars every weekend partying and our morals were in the gutter and maybe I was a part of the worshipping of devils and fornication and all this and all of a sudden I'm converted and I'm in love with Jesus and I realize I was in sin and now I have these morals that I'm wanting purity in but I'm still attached to this woman here who's still living in the gutter.

And there's always going to be conflict in that situation. And so young people, I mean, I know you've been told this many times but just realize that the word of the Lord says don't marry someone that is not a new creation of Christ Jesus. Young men, young ladies, tell you she's beautiful for a while but that first or second argument, it's all going out the window.

Just telling you ahead of time, it's all going out the window. All the beauty is going out the window. People get ugly pretty quick if they're angry, if they're contentious.

And so be careful that when you, and seek the counsel of your parents, seek the counsel of the church leaders but ask the question, is this a, is this a equal yoke? Am I yoking up with someone on an equal basis? I'm not getting involved with a relationship that I'm going to be fighting this relationship all my life. It's a long time. So, blending together righteousness and unrighteousness, how is that, how is that going to work? All these questions are, you know, what fellowship, how is this going to work? I mean, Paul is asking this question, what fellowship is righteousness going to have with unrighteousness? How are you going to bring this thing together and go forward and plow whatever you're doing? You can imagine seeing, you know, a turtle and a frog in the same yoke.

This should be a constant struggle, right? Or any other animals, for example. The second one is this idea of communion. He says here, what communion has light with darkness? What common ground does light have with darkness? I mean, how's that going to work? Light and darkness.

And this next word, I like this one, is what concord? And that, that word for you music lovers is the word symphonia. It's a musical idea. What symphony, what blending together are you going to have between Christ and the devil? Belial, what symphony can they make? They can.

And so, if you want to have a life that's your work, whatever this yoke is, your marriage, if you want to have something that has a symphony to it, and it's a beautiful thing to see marriages and homes where there's a symphony there. Something good. You can tell, things work together.

A church, for example, where there's a symphony, that it works out. And there's a blending together of different parts and everything's working well. But you bring, you bring, you get a yoke with an unbeliever.

You talk about, you know, these missing chords and it's just, oh, it's painful. And you watch some people's lives. It's painful.

So, the Lord is not trying to hinder you when he says don't, don't yoke yourself with an unbeliever. He's trying to bless you and give you a heads up that this is not going to work. And even though you might be infatuated with a person, you need to trust God by faith and say this is not going to work.

What part or participation hath he that believeth with an infidel? And then the last one here in verse 16, and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? Don't you go back and read the Old Testament and God was driving out the idols they would bring into the temple. I mean, why would, why would you put the temple of God together with idols? Any reasons with them? Don't you know that you are the temple of the living God? God said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I'll be their God and they shall be my people. Don't yoke yourself up.

Can you imagine? You're literally the temple of God and the spirit of God is in you and so you go and yoke yourself to someone who has an unclean spirit in them. Why would I do that? And so these five here, I think of these five words, fellowship, communion, symphony, participation, and agreement. These come when you yoke yourself together with someone of the same nature.

Now if you're unconverted here this morning, yeah, you should probably go find someone who's unconverted. That way you'll have an interest in loving this present world and there are many marriages in this world who are unconverted that seem to get along just fine. They have the same interests and desires and they party together and they have a great time.

But if you're a child of God and you want to have God's blessing, make sure that you don't get involved in business, don't get involved in marriage, don't get involved in investments, and don't get involved in friendships. And yoke yourself together with someone of a contrary nature. Well, let's keep reading here because I want to talk about one of the errors that come out of this passage here in verse 17, wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you.

Now in the context here, the context here is yoking together. Yoking together and trying to discourage yoking together with unbelievers, verse 17, he says, wherefore, come out from among them, from among these unbelievers. In other words, as Paul is writing this to Corinth, there are people in the church who are yoked up with unbelievers in many different ways.

He's already told them about the marriage saying in his first letter, stay in that as long as you can, but in other areas of life, you're yoking up with unbelievers. And so, wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate. Now separate is opposite of all those things that we just read here.

Fellowship and communion and concord and agreement, all these things, you separate yourself. Don't yoke together, but separate. In other words, get out of these yokes.

I don't know, maybe we're down the road here and I went through my own life, which I normally do when I'm preparing a message, I first consider myself, but do I have any yokes? Is there any yokes in my life that I have with unbelievers in any participation or any commitments that I'm yoked into something with an unbeliever? And I want to ask that of you here as we go down through this. Come out from among them, it says. Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord.

Now, I don't know what you think of when you hear that. You know, we have many different ideas, but it's a context of being yoked with unbelievers in different areas of life. So as you hear those words, as I share them this morning, does the Spirit of God say to you anything about something in your own personal life when He says, come out from among the unbeliever and be separate, separate.

And touch not the unclean thing. Now something that maybe we're just, I don't know, desirous of more separation. We had this question in the Baptist church.

It was called secondary separation. There's a big discussion about separation and how much separation. And you take this first step and then the second step of separation.

And I think sometimes people actually want more separation than what God is calling us to. A lot of times they want less. But let's just try to understand here what it means.

We're to come out from among them. The them is obviously the unbeliever. And be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I'll receive you.

Now, that's amazing to me. He's talking to children of God and the Lord is saying, I want to receive you, I want to bless you, but I cannot bless you as long as you're attached in that yoke with that belial or with that infidel or with that unrighteous people or individual. It's like, I'd love to bless you over there, but get out of that attachment you have.

Because I don't want to bless that person or that entity along with you. Come out from among them and be separate. Now this does not refer, and a lot of people have made this mistake, this does not refer to distance and space, but to heart ties and commitments.

It's talking about yokes here. Come out from among them and be separate. Many have taken this passage, and I've known some of them over the years, to mean get far away from unbelievers.

Come out from them and get away from unbelievers. That's not actually what this is talking about here. Many people move out of the city.

They say, well, the Bible says to come out from among them. There's a lot of unbelievers here in this city, so let's move out of the city. Yet Jesus spent most of his time in the city.

Many people have left America and went to South America, to the jungle. I knew one person who moved to the jungle in South America to come out from among America. It's a wicked nation.

Come out and move to South America. That's not at all what it's talking about here. Do you agree with me on that? Even in the book of Revelation, come out from Babylon.

Babylon is a concept. You're yoking yourself up with the system of this world. It's described very adequately in the book of Revelation.

It's not talking about space and geography and distances. It's talking about yoking yourself. That's the context here.

Two groups, individuals. This is not a location change, but rather a heart change. So when Jesus says, go into all the world and preach the gospel, he doesn't turn around and say, come out from among them and be separate.

That doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? Wait a minute, Lord, you just sent me into the world to preach the gospel to every creature, and now you're saying, come out from among them and be separate. Okay, I'm confused. What's going on here? No, that's not a confusing message.

Go into all the world and preach the gospel, but don't yoke with them. Don't friendship. Don't have communion.

Don't have yokes. Don't marry the unconverted. You labor amongst them, and you are a minister of reconciliation.

Don't yoke up with them. That's what I'm talking about. And the whole closed idea, closed community mindset has come from this kind of a passage here.

It's a misunderstanding. Come out from among them. Come out and form a closed system where no one can touch you.

I told you about those Mennonites up in Alberta. I was up there preaching, and they moved up there so far north, northern Alberta, Canada, that only about 50 miles, they said, there's no more people. So barren up there, there's just nobody left.

And they moved up there, thousands of them to get away. Come out from among the people down there in the U.S. or in Canada, and come up here where we can be holy. Yeah, and one of the, what was one of the fathers there was telling me this story, and he said, but my grandfather, he came up, and he didn't know it, but the devil was riding on the bumper all the way up here.

And they brought all their fleshly desires and passions in the world with them. Verse 17, I want to look at a word here. I've talked about this word before, but it shows up again.

Verse 17, wherefore come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. Now a lot of people read that and say, you know, there, see the Lord says I shouldn't touch those unbelievers. You know, I, I rub into one like I'm going to the store or something, I rub an unbeliever.

Ah! Lord forgive me, I touched it. You know, that's what it says. It says touch not the unclean thing.

And of course the unclean thing there is the people you're to come out from among them. And so, you know, some people have this mindset, and the Pharisees were very much this way. Jesus, don't you know this woman is touching you? She's touching you.

And she's a sinner. And that was a big thing back then. No, you don't touch people like this.

Well, I want to remind you here that this word touch is this word hapto, and I shared this about five or six years ago. Some of you might not have been here. Well, many of you probably weren't here.

But there's a different, there's a couple different words for touching in the New Testament, and some of them have to do with this. You know, Jesus, I have an example here in Luke 11, 46. It says you lawyers bind heavy burdens upon men and grievous to be born, and you yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.

It's a different Greek word, and it means to touch slightly, to just bump it. But this word here that's used is the word hapto, which means to fasten to, you look this up, or to cling to, or actually it's sometimes translated to kindle a fire. You know, go here and give James just a big bear hug.

Hold on to each other for a couple of seconds there, 10, 15, seconds. That's getting closer to this word hapto. So the idea of kindling a fire, that's where we talked about the idea here of it's not good for a man to touch a woman.

It's not talking about, you know, Jesus was touched oftentimes by ladies. Who touched me? The whole press of people around him. What do you mean, Lord, who touched you? It's not good for a man to kindle a fire, or to stir passions.

Young people, it's not good for you to touch someone of the opposite sex in such a way as to stir you. You know what that means, to stir your passion. That's what you need to be careful of.

It's not good for a man to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. And so you shouldn't be alarmed if you walk, oh, out the door today and someone accidentally bumps you who's the opposite sex.

Neither should you be alarmed if you run into somebody at Walmart who's unconverted and you touch them. Even though the scripture says, touch not the unclean thing, the idea here is do not fasten yourself, do not yoke yourself together with those who are unconverted. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 11.

I want to address this subject here. Matthew chapter 11. There's actually a lot of people confused even here, I think, about this.

I talk about this some on college campuses over the years. And this phrase, there's actually a psalm for the Caleb that I guess if you don't really think through it, you could feel like maybe you're promoting, or as you sing that psalm, promoting something that is not accurate. But here in Matthew chapter 11, in verse number 16, the Lord says this, but where unto shall I liken this generation? It is likened unto children sitting in the markets and calling unto their fellows and saying, we have piped unto you and you have not danced.

We have mourned unto you and you have not lamented. For John came neither eating nor drinking and they say, and notice those two words there, they say he has a devil. Is that true? No, that's what they're, you're accusing him.

That's the rumor. He has a devil. Verse 19, the son of man came eating and drinking and they say, behold, a man gluttonous and a winebibber.

Is that true? Well, look at the next one. A friend of publicans and sinners. Now, most people, most Christians, if you come up to them and say, is Jesus a friend of publicans and sinners? Probably 99% of them would say, of course he is.

Is he a winebibber? Of course he's not. Is he gluttonous? Of course he's not. Now, wait a minute.

Those three all go together here. He's a gluttonous man, a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. Then he concludes with, but wisdom is justified of our children.

Now, we all need some wisdom and we as his children should understand what this means. Is Jesus a friend of sinners? Jesus, what a friend for sinners. Right? Jesus is not a friend of sinners.

What does that mean? Is he a friend of sinners or is he not? Well, listen, a sinner looking for help and desiring repentance, the Lord is a friend for sinners. The Lord is waiting for the sinner to come and repent and yes, in that sense and we'll see this in a minute, in that sense he is a friend of sinners. But when those people accused him of being a friend of sinners, they were saying he's hobnobbing with sinners.

He's buddies with sinners. And that was a false accusation trying to tear him down. So if you're a sinner looking for a buddy to party with, he's not a friend of sinners.

Amen. He's not a friend. You know this idea, well I'm just going to go to the bar and sit down and buddy up with these people and we'll drink together and maybe I'll win them to Jesus.

That's not how we do it. We don't buddy them, buddy up with them in order to win them. Well see, well Jesus was a friend.

He was a friend of sinners, yes? A sinner who was ready to turn and come and repent, he's a friend to. But at no time is he going to yoke up with you, touch you or embrace what you're doing and participate with you. That's not his heart.

So let's look at one more passage here on this subject. Luke chapter 15. We'll add a little bit here.

Luke chapter 15, verse number 1. This stuff was going on back then and I think a lot of people are confused on this subject, but in Luke 15, verse 1 it says this, Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. They came to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, This man receives sinners and eateth with them.

Now that's the accusation. Again, this guy, he's hanging with the wrong people. And there were times when he would receive sinners there and you want to come and listen? He was, since he was preaching, they wanted to come and hear.

Come on over. I've got some bread for you too. Here, just have some bread.

I'll teach you. Sit down and listen. Of course the religious folks, Why are you eating with sinners? That lady's a harlot.

And the Lord must be friends with sinners. Well let's keep reading. And he spake this parable, this was for them.

Unto them, saying, What man of you having a hundred sheep? If he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? Hey, which one of you guys, when you lose one of your animals, you have concern about it and you go look for it? Oh, I do that. I do that. And when he hath found it, he layeth on his shoulders rejoicing.

And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repents, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. Now, he's telling them this.

My motivation is not to hobnob with them and do what they're doing and yoke up with them. That's not my purpose at all. My purpose is to win them.

And to redeem them and to reclaim that which is lost. Now if your heart is, say some night I, I'm over here in Mount Vernon, and I use James a lot. He's alright with that as an illustration.

I walk by a bar there and I look inside and James is up on the bar, top of the bar there, walking around. I'm saying, James, what in the world are you doing in there with those sinners? And then I look in there and I listen and all of a sudden I see James got his Bible and he's preaching to them. Tell them to repent.

Oh, I get it now. I get it. He has redemption in his heart.

He doesn't have yoking up with them and their activity. He has redemption. And so when the Lord would, would, would intermingle with sinners and rub shoulders and touch them and feed them and bless them, he was doing it to redeem them.

He was not doing it to participate with them and to yoke up with them and to befriend them in that way. And there's, you know, there's, there's areas you got to be, be cautious and be careful with. If people are seeking repentance, I'll eat with them.

I'll do many things with them to try to win them. But I do not yoke myself with sinners in their ventures and in their desires and hobnob with them and participate with them. It's just not right.

If the purpose in your heart is redemption and you have that in mind, then you're on the Lord's page. I am not yoking myself to their lifestyle or their party groups. I am seeking to win their souls.

For example, down in Columbus, there's so many examples of this. You know, we rub shoulders with a lot of sinners. Some of them are really bad and we don't even know half of it.

We rub shoulders with them, but we're not going in business with them. We're not building deep friendships with them. We're not hobnobbing around with them.

We're not yoking together and encouraging marriages. We're not doing any of that. We're staying at a distance, but blessing them and trying to bring them to redemption.

That's our whole purpose in being there. And there can be people who, just like in Jesus' day, criticize you. You know, the guys out there were horrible.

They even fed a pimp one time. That's disgusting. She didn't touch those people.

Some people have that attitude. But when the scripture says, come out from among them, be separate, and touch not the unclean thing, it's not talking about that. It's talking about yoking up with these people.

Fascinating yourself to them in an intimate venture or relationship. So there's many opportunities I wouldn't sign contracts with individuals down there. You've already seen what happens when you put your hand out just a little bit, it gets bitten off.

I wouldn't get into a yoke and bind myself with people until they clearly demonstrate where they're at. Let's go back here and look at 2 Corinthians again and finishing up here this morning. How are we doing on our time? 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 17 says, Wherefore, come out from among them, and be you separate, sayeth the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.

Now what does that mean to you and to me? Realizing that this passage was written in large part to a Corinthian people who were deeply stooped in devil worship, in immorality, in ties with probably individuals and groups that were deeply embedded. He even talks here in the letters to Corinthians about going back and worshiping with those idol worshipers and devil worshipers. Come out from them, whatever that may be, and be separate.

And then this promise here, and I will receive you and will be a father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters, sayeth the Lord God Almighty. Break off, break off these yokes with unbelievers. I want to receive you as my son, as my daughter.

Don't bring, don't bring with you someone in your arms, both arms, you know, someone who hates me, loves the devil. I mean, why are you yoking up with these people? And then you come and say, bless me, Lord, and let's have fellowship, you and me, and why don't you let go of these yokes that you have? And I'll receive you, and I'll be a father unto you, and you'll feel like I'm a father unto you, and a son and a daughter. And of course, this is a part of sanctification.

It's a part of realizing, hey, I'm not going to get any close to the Lord. I'm not going to be blessed by the Lord unless I start dropping off some of these yokes that I have in my life. If you look at chapter 7, verse 1, there it says, having therefore these promises.

What promises? God's promised you. I'll bless you. Let us cleanse ourselves from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

And so, this idea of cleansing yourself from these yokes, the next one, chapter 7, verse 1. So break off the yoke. I want you in my yoke. Take my yoke upon you and be pretty tough to be in a yoke.

And then to say to the Lord, Lord, I'm in this yoke here with this beast over here, and I want to stay in this yoke with this beast, but I want to get in your yoke. And I'm going to have to bring this yoke of this beast with me, and we'll both just jump into your yoke. And the Lord says, that's not going to work.

Not going to work. So why don't you break off the yoke with this beast, and then I'll take you up in my yoke, and you can learn of me. Anyone have any thoughts on that? I'm done.

Yeah. Loyal. And that could be, that verse 1 says, cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and of the spirit.

But with every media, there is a source. A source, and that source is what you're fellowshipping with. That's what you're saying.

So whether you're married and fellowshipping, or you're fellowshipping with another source, that is a yoke.