When to Say No to the World
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Spurgeon: “I am afraid we are too much like the world for the world to hate us.”
Why this sermon:
Alistair Begg:
40 years of faithful preaching
Told grandmother to attend her grandchild’s transgender wedding and bring a gift
Rationale: This would surprise the grandchild who would expect the grandmother to stay away
Internet responds, many upset and surprised
AFA Radio contacts the ministry; Begg’s staff state emphatically that Begg is not changing his position
Begg’s response from the pulpit
Storm in a teapot
Those who have disagreed with him strongly are Pharisees
Misuses parable of the prodigal son, making people who disagree with him the son who did not want his father to show grace
Says he is not an American fundamentalist, he is from the UK, and he understands nuance (implying those who disagree with him do not understand nuance)
States his main concern was protecting the grandmother’s relationship with her grandchild. (Main concern should be pleasing God, obeying His commands, and stating the truth)
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 Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,
and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
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.
2 Corinthians—Power in Weakness (Chapter 18: Bringing Holiness to Completion)
Forty years ago liberal theologian Langdon Gilkey gave this assessment of his church in America, an assessment that could describe much of the evangelical church today:
All around us we see the church well acclimated to culture: successful, respected, wealthy, full, and growing. But are the transcendent and the holy there? In the area of belief we find widespread indifference to the Bible and ignorance of its contents—and strong resentment if a biblical word of judgment is brought to bear on the life of the congregation. In worship we find notably lacking any sense of the holy presence of God and of what worship is for.… In ethics we find the cultural ideals of friendliness and fellowship more evident than the difficult standards of the New Testament or historic Christendom.
Hearing this today, who can deny that biblical ignorance, an absence of holiness in worship, and ethical accommodation have become widespread among evangelicals? As Joe Bayly, author and editor, wrote, “The evangelical church is sick—so sick that people are crowding in to join us. We’re a big flock, big enough to permit remarriage of divorced people (beyond the exceptions of the Word of God), big enough to permit practicing homosexuals to pursue their lifestyle, big enough to tolerate almost anything pagans do. We’re no longer narrow; it’s a wide road of popular acceptance for us.”
We are not to be removed completely from unbelievers:
And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
But dining with someone is not the same as attending with them while they sin. We are not to participate in sin. This is where Alistair Begg made a false dichotomy, meaning a false choice. Either go to the wedding or banish the grandchild completely. The grandmother could still love her grandchild without attending the sinful wedding.
Alistair Begg is right that the grandmother may lose the relationship by not attending the blasphemous wedding, since Jesus himself announced quite clearly that following him would cause relationships to be broken
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
And grandmother against grandchild. Following Christ will put you at odds with people who are not in the faith, even in your own household. And we are under His command, and we are to obedient to scripture.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.
Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Therefore do not become partners with them;
for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),
and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.
Now, getting back to our main text: 2Cor6.14
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
Rhetorical questions. The answer is clear. There is no partnership. There is no fellowship.
What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
Again. No accord. No portion
What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No Agreement. We have God in us, and if God is in us, then we cannot participate in any religious ritual that is outside his sanction.
Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,
and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
Be separate. Go out. Do not touch.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume 2 Corinthians 6:11–18
The caution or exhortation itself, not to mingle with unbelievers, not to be unequally yoked with them, v. 14. Either,
1. In stated relations. It is wrong for good people to join in affinity with the wicked and profane; these will draw different ways, and that will be galling and grievous. Those relations that are our choice must be chosen by rule; and it is good for those who are themselves the children of God to join with those who are so likewise; for there is more danger that the bad will damage the good than hope that the good will benefit the bad.
2. In common conversation. We should not yoke ourselves in friendship and acquaintance with wicked men and unbelievers. Though we cannot wholly avoid seeing, and hearing, and being with such, yet we should never choose them for our bosom-friends.
3. Much less should we join in religious communion with them; we must not join with them in their idolatrous services, nor concur with them in their false worship, nor any abominations; we must not confound together the table of the Lord and the table of devils, the house of God and the house of Rimmon.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume 2 Corinthians 6:11–18
Who can touch pitch, and not be defiled by it? We must take care not to defile ourselves by converse with those who defile themselves with sin
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.
Why do we separate from the evil practices of the world? Because we have these promises.
What other practices must we separate from? Are you putting relationship with worldly people above your commitment to serve the living God? How do we show love to the world without approving of their evil? Without participating in it?
A wedding is a ceremony in which all the witnesses are approving of it. They used to ask if anyone had an objection. If no one did, it was assumed all in that community gathering were approving of the ceremony. A Christian cannot attend a wedding of anything other than what God determined, a marriage between one man and one woman. No matter what the government says is legal, it is not permitted for us. It would violate the commands we have just observed, to go out and be separate, and to not participate in their evil.
The Old Testament begins with a wedding. The account of Jesus’ ministry begins with a wedding. The last book, Revelation, features a wedding. God has put a very high and holy value to weddings. They are an example of the relationship between God and the church.
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,
because we are members of his body.
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
This is the passage I begin with when a couple comes to me about getting married. I want them to understand that marriage is very special, very holy, not to be taken lightly. Though the world has made a mockery of it, the church must uphold it in the highest esteem, defending true marriage, supporting it, promoting it. We must not take part in sham weddings that mock God’s plan. They are blasphemous ceremonies. Satan twists all the good things God has made in his opposition to God. Homosexual weddings are Satanic rituals. God hates it.
This does not mean we should not show kindness and love, as we should to all of God’s enemies, and share the gospel with them, hoping they can be saved. Jesus was full of grace and truth, so we must be as well. There is no love in watching the sin of others.