Touch No Unclean Thing

I. Introduction
A. We are a part of a church in order to grow in Christ, not be static in our faith, not just maintain.
1. And that happens a number of ways: by example, by encouragement, by prayer. But especially it happens by the word of God.
2. We have been blessed by this glorious resource to help us see clearly and know how to respond.
B. 2Corinthians 6:14–7:1 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 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. 17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” 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 God.
C. We’ll be focusing primarily on 17-18 this morning.
II. Explanation
A. In these two verses, Paul says the same thing three ways:
1. Go out from their midst and be separate from them.
2. Touch no unclean thing
3. Cleanse yourselves from every defilement of body and spirit.
B. So what are these talking about?
1. Go out from their midst and be separate from them.
a. Who is the “their” of “go out from their midst” & the “them” of “be separate from them” in v. 17?
b. Does this passage teach us to isolate ourselves from the world around us?
c. What is the antecedent? the antecedent has to be back in v.16 “What agreement has the temple of God with idols?” In other words, Paul is talking about idols. Go out from the midst of idols, and be separate from idols.
d. This is not about who we associate with, it’s about where we look for life.
2. Touching what is unclean
a. In the OT there were things that were not to be touched (e.g. a carcass). If an Israelite were to touch one of these things, he would defile himself and be ceremonially unclean.
b. But 2Cor.6:17 is not referring to physical touching of something ceremonially unclean, as in the OT. The laws of touching have expired in Christ according to Col.2:20-22.
c. He is referring to being involved with idols. He is using OT language to refer to participation in what is truly and spiritually unclean, not just ceremonially unclean.
3. Cleanse yourselves from every defilement of body and spirit.
a. Defilement of spirit makes sense here but what about defilement of body?
b. Remember in our study of the epistles of Jesus, that churches were struggling with engaging in pagan idolatrous sexual activity. Well, it’s clear from 1Corinthians 6:15-20 that this was a problem in Corinth as well, so Paul includes the defilement of body as well.
III. This passage is about idolatry.
A. There are five OT passages cited by Paul here in this passage. If you go back and look at each of those five passages in context, all of them are contexts addressing idolatry,
1. 6:16 is from Lev 26:11–12.
2. Isaiah 52:11 is cited in 6:17ab.
3. Ezekiel 20:34 (LXX) is cited in 6:17d.
4. 2Samuel 7:14 and Deut 32:18–19 are joined together in 6:18.
B. And one of the main points of v.17-18 is that there is a direct connection between our letting go of worldly idols and our enjoyment of God as our heavenly Father.
1. Who gets the desires of their heart? It's not those who delight themselves in the things of earth. It is those who delight in the Lord. (Ps.37:4)
C. So many times we are desperate to know the nearness of God, to feel His love, but there’s a block.
1. We’re trying to enjoy God’s approval and human approval at the same time, and it can’t be.
2. If you want to feel God’s approval, you must give up the idol of human approval. For no man can serve two masters.
D. Think about the duty of faithfulness in marriage.
1. The duty of marital faithfulness should go hand-in-hand with a loving, edifying relationship which is a source of great comfort, companionship and blessing to both parties.
2. And the duty of marital faithfulness is not a negative side of that relationship, but a positive one. “I am all yours” goes together with “you are all mine”
3. When I perform a wedding, I include an old line in the vows which says, “forsaking all others, I take you unto myself.” Johnathan doesn’t get Holly without giving up all the Lucys and Nancys and Amandas and Priscillas at the same time. And vice versa.
4. The same is true in our relationship with Christ. In order for the relationship to be what it should be, it must involve commitment, and whole-hearted surrender. It must involve the forsaking of other gods.
E. You see, our hearts are idol factories, and we sort of like living in an idolatrous world. We like living in a world where we can continue to worship our idols.
F. Three illustrations
1. The Jeffrey Epstein incident: a billionaire who was having his way with underaged girls. Many knew what was happening, but everyone was getting their little slice of the pie.
2. RC church child abuse scandal: many, many people knew what was going on, but covered it up. No one was courageous enough to bring it to light. They had careers to worry about. They had the reputation of God’s church to protect.
3. The same thing can be said of the church in Nazi Germany. When Hitler began to impose his will on the church, most Christian churches went along with it, because they enjoyed the favor of the fuhrer. They bought in because they liked their earthly securities. A few didn’t, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and paid for it with their lives. How in the world could Christian leaders cooperate with Hitler? Because they had idols they didn’t want to let go of, like the idol of your earthly life.
G. My point is not to trash Jeffrey Epstein or the RC church or the Christian leaders in Nazi Germany. My point is to use these as analogies to illustrate how we are all tempted to cooperate with the world’s system because we enjoy some benefits of it.
1. It may be that we enjoy the laxness or the misogyny, or we enjoy the vulgarity or the disrespect, we enjoy the racism or the sexism, we enjoy the materialism, or the judgmental spirit, we enjoy the apathetic attitude toward the things of the Lord because it means we can get away with a significant level of apathy ourselves.
2. We like living in an age of tolerance because we can get away with stuff: nobody is calling us to task for our pet sins and idols.
3. We are comfortable living among people who are completely focused on this life, because we feel more comfortable focusing on this life as well.
4. We like living in a society which is strongly committed to creature comforts because, well, we like to focus on our creature comforts too.
5. We like living in an individualistic society, because then we can do whatever we like.
6. We like living in a culture of entertainment, because we like to be entertained.
7. We like living in a society which is more committed to its own comforts than to the needs of the world’s poor, because then we don’t feel so guilty about being stingy.
8. We like complaining, so we are happy to live in a world where complaining is normal.
9. We like living in a land where people don’t want to hear about Jesus, because we don’t have the courage to tell them anyway.
H. We can’t speak truth to a world when secretly we are on the take.
1. We can’t call people to repentance if we’re not living a life of repentance.
2. We can’t tell the world that idols are empty and lead to destruction if we are trying to protect our own idols.
3. We can’t preach Christ if He isn’t the source of OUR life and joy. We can’t preach Christ if we’re actually looking to this world to give us life. We can’t preach Christ if we actually look to the approval of people or to earthly success or to creature comforts for our happiness.
4. This society is so fed up with Christian hypocrisy that many just assume that all Christians are sleazy hypocrites. And it doesn’t do any good to argue with them. The only effective thing is to live Christ-filled lives, to “touch no unclean thing” and to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”
I. In our flesh we love what is evil. And therefore the easy path is to be tolerant of evil in ourselves. And if we’re tolerant of our own evil, most likely we will be content with our society’s evil.
J. And it’s easy just to spray perfume instead of flushing the toilet.
K. We’re so tolerant of our own sin, but it stinks in the Lord’s nostrils.
L. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” – Exod.20:3
1. This was the biggest problem among God’s people through the OT.
2. And it continues to be the biggest problem among God’s people in the NT age as well.
a. This is why Jesus told the rich, young ruler that he had to give away all his possessions (Matt.19:16-22). That was his idol, even though the man didn’t seem to realize that.
b. Like him, we are always tempted to look elsewhere for our life & joy, instead of looking to God.
3. Some husbands are said to have a wandering eye. They’re always looking at other women.
a. Well, sadly we believers also have wandering eyes. We know we’re married to Christ, but we’re always noticing other potential sources of security or life.
4. Really every sin comes down to this.
M. My problem is never my circumstances. My problem is always my heart, my idolatry. What is the object of my worship? If I am exasperated with my child, it is not because my child is being difficult, it is because I have made an idol of have cooperative, compliant, respectful children.
1. If I am in panic mode over my personal finances, it is not because things looks so bleak, it is because I have an idol. The idol may be materialism, or my idol may be financial security, but either way the fretting results from the idolatry.
IV. Idolatry and fellowship with God
A. But calling us to forsake our idols is not where Paul stops here. He adds something very important.
1. Paul is confronting our idolatry here, but he isn’t just commanding it or chiding us for it. He’s not saying, “You must get rid of your idols because they’re bad, or because God says so, or because only God deserves your worship!” Rather, he bases the command on a promise. He is saying, “The Lord Almighty says, ‘Get rid of your idols and I will dwell among you and walk among you, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons & daughters to me.’ ”
B. Friends, there is no more chilling possibility than to have God say to you, "I am against You." When the One who holds up the ceiling above your head, when the One who keeps your heart beating says that, watch out!
1. And this is exactly what God says to those who forsake Him & embrace the world (Nahum 3:1-5).
2. “All things betrayeth thee, who betrayeth Me.” – Francis Thompson, “The Hound of Heaven”
C. HOWEVER, how great is the mercy of the Lord toward those who turn away from idols and toward the Lord, no matter what they have done previously. They will be welcomed into the household of God. They will be adopted into His very family.
1. God does not just command us to forsake idols. He tells us that if we will, we will receive a grand welcome:
2. We have a great picture of it in Luke 15:20-24: "While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. The son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate."
3. "I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10)
D. There is no better welcome than the one a sinner receives from God when he turns away from his idols and unto Christ. And this applies to every one of us every day. Even now He stands ready to receive us in His loving embrace through Jesus the Son.
E. Over and over again, God invites us and calls us and commands us to come.
F. My friends, there are parents here who have children who haven’t put their faith in Christ. They come home to visit home sometimes, but they never have come Home to Christ. In love these parents pray fervently and with breaking hearts for those children.
1. When and if that day comes when they truly come home to Christ, I can tell you, there will be such a sweet, full-hearted parental welcome!
2. And we know that any warm and generous welcome humans can offer is but a small glimpse or taste of the divine welcome.
G. Whether it’s the first time we’ve ever come to Him or the ten thousandth, He promises to receive us when we humble ourselves and repent of our sinful idolatries.