What God Has Separated, Let Not Man Join Together.

Based upon the principle of Matthew 19:6

2 Corinthians 6:16-18 (KJV) "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. {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, {18} And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

There are several things that God has separated, and man is not allowed to join them together by law. Yet people do this all of the time. They have their reasons; but those reasons will not justify their positions.

Unequally yoked--

2 Corinthians 6:14 (KJV) "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?"

Fellowship---we must learn its boundries and its relationship with the truth.

2 Corinthians 6:15 (KJV) "And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?"

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (NKJV) "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? {15} And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? {16} And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people." {17} Therefore "Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you." {18} "I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty."

Deuteronomy 22:10 (NKJV) "You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together."

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (NKJV) "I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people." Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore "put away from yourselves the evil person."

Ephesians 5:6-7 (NKJV) "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 be partakers with them."

Ephesians 5:11 (NKJV) "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them."

1 John 1:6 (NKJV) "If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Sharing or partaking of evil--

1 Corinthians 10:21 (NKJV) "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons."

1 Corinthians 3:16 (NKJV) "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"

Matthew 16:16 (NKJV) "Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Several passages deal with God as the father of believers. This is a special relationship that only believers can hold. Anyone who is not a faithful follower of His word, cannot be a child of God. In a sense, all mankind are children of God. But in the important realm of spirituality, only those who meet certain qualifications can be called the children of God.

Leviticus 26:12 (NKJV) "I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people."

Exodus 29:45 (NKJV) "I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God."

Ezekiel 37:27 (NKJV) "My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people."

Jeremiah 31:1 (NKJV) "At the same time," says the LORD, "I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people."

Exodus 25:8 (NKJV) "And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them."

John 14:23 (NKJV) "Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."

Notice that all these verses place restrictions or guidelines upon this relationship. We do not have an open door policy of our choosing. We must follow the rules of God, not man.

Jeremiah 24:7 (NKJV) "Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart."

Jeremiah 31:33 (NKJV) "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."

Jeremiah 32:38 (NKJV) "They shall be My people, and I will be their God;"

Ezekiel 11:20 (NKJV) "that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God."

Now we must separate from evil and the worldliness in order to become children of God.

Zechariah 8:8 (NKJV) "I will bring them back, And they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be My people And I will be their God, In truth and righteousness."

Isaiah 52:11 (NKJV) "Depart! Depart! Go out from there, Touch no unclean thing; Go out from the midst of her, Be clean, You who bear the vessels of the LORD."

Revelation 18:14 (NKJV) "The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all."

Hosea 1:10 (NKJV) "Yet the number of the children of Israel Shall be as the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' There it shall be said to them, 'You are sons of the living God."

Isaiah 43:6 (NKJV) "I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' And to the south, 'Do not keep them back!' Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth;"

The qualifications--

Romans 8:14 (NKJV) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

John 1:12 (NKJV) "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:"

John 11:52 (NKJV) "and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad."

Romans 8:16 (NKJV) "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,"

Philippians 2:14-15 (NKJV) Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,"

1 John 3:1-2 (NKJV) "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."

1 John 3:10 (NKJV) "In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother."

1 John 5:2 (NKJV) "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments."

Man tries to join things which God has separated. Such as the old with the new. The dead with the living. The wrong with the right. Man tries to justify his actions by claiming to reach ultimate goals (also known as "the end justifies the means). But the truth cannot be changed. We notice that the lies are always changing as every denomination is constantly changing boundaries of acceptable behaviour. They teach their own version of being right or wrong, or their own definitions of evel or good. The prophet Isaiah speaking for God said Woe to them who call evil good and good evil. Isa 5:20.

By Carey Scott borrowed from an outline by someone else.

Return to the Sermons Page

Home / Bible studies / Bible Survey / Special Studies / General Articles / Non-Bible Articles / Sermons / Sermon Outlines / Links / Questions and Answers / What Saith The Scriptures /Daily Devotional / Correspondence Courses / What is the Church of Christ / Book: Christian Growth / Website Policy / E-mail / About Me /