The Question of Divorce

Transcript

GRM 1098
10/21/2012
The Question of Divorce
1 Corinthians 7:7-10
Gil Rugh

Back in 1 Corinthians 7 together today. we are really doing a series on the family, not a study of 1st Corinthians but as we move through different issues relating to the family, husband, wife, children, things like that, we come to 1 Corinthians 7 because in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul addresses certain questions that the Corinthian Church had written to him about. So Chapter 7 began “now concerning the things about which you wrote” and so Paul is answering specific questions and these questions revolve around the subject of marriage, sex in marriage, divorce, divorce among believers, divorce among divided families where the husband is a believer, the wife is not or vice versa. The matters related to being single and so on. So all of Chapter 7 really deals with the subject of marriage. Now keep that in mind because for our consideration today we’ll come to a section covering verses 17 through 24. He doesn’t specifically mention marriage or anything directly related to marriage in these verses.

But if you note, verse 16, “For how do you know O wife, whether you will save your husband?” And then so on, so he is talking about husband and wife. When you come to verse 25, “Now concerning virgins those who have never been married.” There is instruction he is going to give. The chapter will end down to verse 39, “A wife is bound as long as her husband lives;” and so on. So you see the chapter is all about marriage and divorce so what he says in verses 17 to 24 will be to clarify matters. Particularly rating marriage and divorce but will use illustrations from other areas of life to establish the point. We’ll say more about that when we come to the section.

He talked about the responsibility of a husband and a wife and the context of their sexual relation and their responsibility and privilege of sexual fulfillment in marriage. He moved then to the dissolving of marriage. And picking up with verse 10 and down through 16, he is talking about the subject of marriage and divorce. We looked at verses 10 and 11 and noted there, Paul is dealing with the subject of divorce between two believers where both the husband and wife are believers. So he said in verse 10, “But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord,” The point he is making there is that Jesus Christ himself addressed this subject. Matthew 5, Matthew 19 and corresponding passages in the Gospel of Mark and Luke. 1 Corinthians 7:10-11, “To the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband (but if she does leave, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and also that the husband should not send his wife away.” What he says through this section applies to both husband and wife. He doesn’t always go back and forth. Sometimes he addresses the wife, sometimes he will address the husband. The man, the woman. Sometimes he’ll say he is talking to them both but we’re talking about them both throughout this section. When you have two believers, problems will come up. We are not yet perfected in our walk with Christ. So there are conflicts that will come even among a believing husband and a believing wife. They’re to be resolved. There is to be forgiveness, we looked at that. If a divorce does occur, the only option if you decide you don’t like being single is to get back with your former husband or wife. 1 Corinthians 7:11, “(but if she does leave, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband.” That is consistent with what Christ said. In the beginning God made them male and female. So what God has joined together let no man put asunder. Now Christ is addressing Israel so he doesn’t expand beyond that. We’ll say more about that in Paul’s next statement. But among believers, there ought to be reconciliation. That word reconciliation is the same word reconciliation that’s used as our reconciliation to God. There’s forgiveness that we are brought into right reconciliation to God in Christ. There is forgiveness that we are brought into right relationship with him. We looked at the subject of forgiveness. We as believers are those who experienced God’s forgiveness. So we are to manifest that forgiveness.

When we’ve been wronged even in our marriage relationship. So for two believers, you don’t divorce. If you do divorce, your option is you can remarry your former spouse. Marriage to another person is not an option for believers. 1 Corinthians 7:12 though brings up another situation that Christ did not address, “but to the rest I say, not the Lord” and he is not saying this is not inspired. What he is saying Christ did not address this particular situation. So he is addressing it. This is additional revelation given thru Paul. That “if any brother has a wife that is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away, divorce her husband.” Christ did not address the subject of a mixed marriage of a believer and an unbeliever because he only addressed the nation, Israel. So he is not talking about believer and unbeliever. Israel is an elect nation, it was a double election. Remember the election of the nation, Israel and then the election to salvation of individuals within the nation. As an elect nation, they were to be a nation obeying the commands of God. And so he addresses them accordingly.

Now as Paul addresses this subject in a Gentile church like you have at Corinth, a Greek city, there would have been those who had come under Paul’s ministry when he came. And a husband believed the Gospel but his wife did not. Or a wife believed the Gospel and her husband did not. Now you have a divided marriage. You have a believer and an unbeliever being joined together in a relationship. What does this mean? Seems like, “oh wow that would be an unworkable situation. You have an unbelieving spouse and you are joined in a relationship of oneness and you are going to express that oneness with a sexual union, wouldn’t that be defiling?”

We have some Old Testament background that might indicate that. The book of Haggai, we won’t go to Haggai but it is in those small prophetic books that are in the end of the Old Testament. Haggai, chapter 2, the question was raised to the priest and Israel, you know you had food that was clean and unclean, holy and unholy, not just foods but other things. Well if you had something that was holy that touched something that was unholy, the thing that was holy did not make the thing that was unholy clean, holy but the thing that was clean or unclean defiled the thing that was the holy. You had a further example in the book of Ezra, chapter 10. Some of the Jews had married pagan, not Jewish wives. You know the solution was, they had to divorce them, separate them. So that happens in Ezra. So if you tried to carry over for all the instructions that were to be true of Israel as God’s chosen nation in the Old Testament it would seem to carry over. Well now, I’m a believer, I belong to God. My spouse is an unbeliever who belongs to the devil. You have a child of God and a child of the devil in a relationship of oneness. That doesn’t seem to be right.

Come over to Second Corinthians, Paul will later write the Second letter of Corinthians. In 11 Corinthians 6: 14, [he will tell them] “Do not be bound together with unbelievers, for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God” verse 17, “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord. And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you.” Chapter 7: 1 begins “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Now Paul writes this later, but the Corinthians would be aware of this kind of teaching. Now if you are a believer married to an unbeliever, what do we have in common? Nothing of eternal significance and importance. Unbelievers are children of the devil Jesus said to the unbeliever. We are the children of God. We are not to be bound together with unbelievers, we have nothing in common. It is as light with darkness. So you come back to 1 Corinthians 7 and Paul is addressing the issue. What about those who have an unbelieving spouse? It seems that the right thing to do would be to divorce them. Paul says just the opposite. A woman who has an unbelieving husband and the unbelieving husband consents to live with her. That word consents means to more than just grudgingly willing. But it notes a positiveness. They are in agreement. They want the marriage to continue. The believer must not divorce them. That is true whether it is a husband or wife; whichever one is the believer, whichever one is the unbeliever according to verses 12 and 13. So be careful you do not pick up truth that does not apply when you are talking about the nation Israel in the Old Testament context when you are talking about now what it is talking about in the church. Not everything there is going to carry over.

Some of the logic, it doesn’t seem logical that a believer should remain bound together with an unbeliever. And it would seem defiling that you bring sex into that relationship as an expression of one God has created. It just seems tainted. I know my unbelieving husband has lustful thoughts and it is impure in his thinking and now we are going to be joined in oneness. What did Paul say back in 1 Corinthians 6:16, “Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For He says, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ But the one who joins himself with the Lord is one spirit with him.” The preceding verse 15, “Shall I take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? But it seems that if we are married but if one is an unbeliever and I’m joining myself as one with an unbeliever, all that together just seems like divorce is probably the right thing. Paul’s clarifying that it is not the right thing. If the unbelieving spouse is in agreement and desires to maintain the marriage then the believer must not divorce the unbeliever.

So the fact that you have an unbelieving spouse is not grounds for divorce. Now the unbeliever has to be willing. Now there is a balance here. That doesn’t mean the believing spouse is going to make life miserable because every night of the week I am going to be at a Bible study. Besides that I’m going to have all my believing friends over pretty regularly and you are going to have to go to church with me and make all these things to try to make the unbeliever….no. But he is willing to live. Now there may be some things, there was an example given probably 100 years after the New Testament, but among believers. An issue came up there, a husband and wife that lived a loose life as unbelievers. They were involved with other people sexually. The one got saved, now they could no longer continue that loose living. The unbeliever was not willing to continue a relationship, if they weren’t going to continue their previous lifestyle. So the believers’ writing in that occasion, it was an acceptable situation for divorce.

There are certain things a believer now can’t persist in a life of sin. They might not be able to go the bar and get drunk on weekends like they used to. But the believing spouse is going to be doing everything they can to be the kind of husband or the kind of wife that God says they are to be. In other words they’re not to be looking for a way out of this relationship. And the unbeliever’s happy to have them as their husband or their wife, they want the marriage to go on. What does this mean, how does this work? Well verse 14 of 1 Corinthians 7, “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her husband, otherwise your children are unclean, now they are holy.” Notice the reminder, we have the word sanctified in verse 14 twice. Then you have the word holy at the end of verse 14. The same basic Greek word, haugious, haugioddso are the words for, Saint, Sanctified and Holy, so there’s not a distinction in that. We are holy because we have been set apart from sin, for God. God himself is perfectly holy. The Seraphim in Isaiah 6, cry out before the throne of God, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” why is He holy? Because He is set apart perfectly and completely from all defilement from all sin.

So saints are those set apart by God for himself. Every believer is a saint, so Paul writes to the saints in the church at Corinth. Those who have been set apart by God for himself. Those who are holy ones. So you could translate that I’m writing to the holy ones in the church at Corinth. Or to the saints or to the sanctified ones basically. The unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her husband. What does that mean? Does it mean they are made holy and they’re saved just because they’re married to a believer? Obviously not. Come over to 1 Timothy chapter 4. Paul is warning Timothy about false teachers and false teaching. The chapter opens up, and the Spirit explicitly says “In the later times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits, and doctrines of demons. By means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscious, as with a branding iron, they forbid marriage, advocate sustaining from food which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude for it is sanctified.” Made holy by means of the word of God in prayer.

Now food is not saved. Different kinds of foods are not saved. Salvation happens to personal beings, human beings. But the food is made holy, and the idea is made familiar in the Old Testament. It is now that which is acceptable by God, and not something that defiles you. Jesus dealt with this subject in Mark chapter 7, when He says “it’s not the things on the outside that defile you, it’s the things that come out of your heart that defile you.”

So contact with certain foods, or certain people don’t defile you. Come back to 1 Corinthians. And come to chapter 5. There was confusion among the Corinthians on this very subject. He wrote, he says in 1 Corinthians 5:9 “I wrote you in my letter (a previous letter), not to associate with immoral people. I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world.” Everyone who is not a believer is a sinner unredeemed. “But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother” anyone who claims to be a believer, a Christian “if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, of a drunkard, or a swindler – not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.” We get confused, we do today, sometimes people say; you know I have a job and I work around people and they are so profane. I feel like I’m defiled, I feel dirty working there. Well, get over it. Being around a sinful person doesn’t make you sinful. They don’t transmit their sinfulness to you.

We sometimes get a wrong idea of holiness. So that’s what Paul’s writing here. Unbelievers are sinful, you’re not defiled by being around unbelievers. Now you can be defiled if you do what unbelievers do. And that’s not accepted among believers. That’s why you can be around an unbeliever who’s immoral and that doesn’t defile you. But if you practice immorality, you’re defiled, and if you’re a believer, you can’t be accepted among believers. You’re put out from the church. So that distinction. But unbelievers don’t defile us, so you can work close to them. They may be immoral, they may be profane, in their language or whatever, but that doesn’t make you dirty, unclean before God. In fact your presence brings a holiness to the atmosphere. And that’s what he says, back in chapter 7, remember the food is sanctified, is made holy, it’s set apart.

So the unbelieving husband is sanctified through the wife, the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband. So rather than the unbeliever defiling the believer, it goes the other way. The unbeliever by virtue of being joined to a believer, is set apart and in a special relationship, they’re not saved, but obviously now they are married to one who what? Is the object of God’s special love and care and attention. And so they themselves are set apart, and benefit from that relationship, in a variety of ways. So if you think of the defilement, there is no defilement, rather there is the blessings of God. Because that unbelieving spouse is joined in a relationship with one who has been set apart by God for Himself. He illustrates this, if this weren’t true, your children would have to be considered unclean. But now they are holy. And let’s face it, they weren’t thinking of getting rid of their children. They think, well maybe I’d like to divorce this spouse, but they’re not thinking of divorcing their children. But think about it, that unregenerate child, is that defiling to you, to be the parent of an unbelieving child? A mother lovingly nurses that child, which was born in sin. Does that defilement transmit to her now? No!

So, we’re clear here, that they can understand this, your children are special before the Lord, because they belong to you. Your husband or your wife are special before the Lord, because they belong to you. But be careful, that doesn’t carry it to now they are holy in the saved sense. Any more than the food changed character; it was still food. But there is nothing defiling about it as 1 Corinthians 7:14 said. Yet, verse 15, now don’t read in to this. You know we always have to be careful. We talked about keeping the scriptural balance; not taking one thing out of a portion of scripture. Does that mean therefore a believer should never divorce an unbeliever, should never allow a divorce to occur? If your unbelieving spouse wants to divorce you, you fight it to the end. 1 Corinthians 7:15, “Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace.” If the unbeliever determines no, I want a divorce you are not the person I married, we don’t do the things we used to do, we don’t go out and party and carouse and get drunk and do all the things that we did. And I’m not willing to change my lifestyle and if you are not willing to continue with me in that lifestyle I’m out of here. Let them go. The believer doesn’t pursue the divorce but the unbeliever does in the sense that the believer doesn’t want it but the unbeliever is not willing to maintain the relationship. If the unbelieving one leaves, let them leave. The brother or sister is not under bondage, translated bondage, {greek word - to be enslaved.] The believer is not enslaved in such cases but God has called us to peace. Believer’s desire is for a proper relationship here. They’re not pursuing getting out of the marriage but they are not going to fight when the unbeliever wants out.

But getting saved doesn’t mean now I should be looking to get out of the marriage. 1 Corinthians 7:16, “For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?” That’s the ultimate desire. And he is going to clarify things but before we look on come over to 1 Peter 3:1, “In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands (but what if they are unbelievers) so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives.” So it is not the wife who is constantly badgering their husbands to get them saved, I’m just going to be a Godly wife, best wife that I can be by the grace of God to this husband who knows nothing of the saving grace of God. “As they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.” So Peter’s instruction whose name is Paul. Paul has made clear that if the unbeliever wants out then the believer is to agree to the divorce. I sometimes have spouses come in and ask if my unbelieving wife or husband wants a divorce, should I fight this? My answer is no in light of this passage. And if he wants the divorce and is determined to pursue it, no, I don’t think you should fight it. That doesn’t mean the believer doesn’t have certain rights legally and so on but as far as fighting to maintain the marriage from what Paul says here if the unbeliever wants to leave than the believer can agree to the divorce. That is the plan of God.

Now verses 17 to 24 puts this into clear perspective. There are three statements here. They are not exact but they say the same thing. They are repeated at the beginning, middle and ending of this section that prepare us for everything in the chapter in context. I Peter 3:17, “Only has the Lord has assigned to each one as God has called each in this manner, let them walk” Verse 20, “Each man must remain in that condition in which he was called.” Verse 24, “Brethren each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called.” The point he is making, then we will walk through the details here, being saved by God’s grace does not require a change in your ethnic condition, in your social condition, in your job condition, in your marriage. He is not going to mention marriage in verses 17 thru 24. He is going to give an illustration to this principle. Each one is to remain in the condition in what he was called. The point being, when you were called to God’s salvation by his grace, you can condition in that condition. The point he is making in this context, the marriage if you were single and you were saved that doesn’t mean now you have to get married. If you were married and you got saved that doesn’t mean now you should get divorced. That’s why he brings this in talking about husbands and wives. Basically he is going to pick up in verse 25 and talk about single people and those who are married again and responsibilities.

So this section in the middle basically puts it in to perspective. Salvation doesn’t require a change in these other areas. So be careful of thinking now I’m saved. I use this passage often when people come to me and they have recently been saved and now they are ready to change their life completely. I’m going to quit my job and go to seminary. I say, No, don’t do that. It doesn’t mean God is not going to lead you there, but wait. Well I got saved and I think God wants me to have the right husband or the right wife. Well maybe he doesn’t, maybe he does, but right now getting saved does not require a change in that. That’s the point. So 1 Corinthians 7: 17, crucial verse with quite a bit of theology in it. “Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, [that word assigned is as he divided out, as he has distributed to each one – the emphasis on this is to each one. Paul uses this expression here to each one, he puts in to emphasis God’s sovereignly to each one is to bestow a spiritual gift fitted for each person. That’s what he is talking about here to each one God has assigned, God has contributed something and it is their life situation, circumstances.

Salvation doesn’t require a change in that because that is part of the package. As God has assigned to each one, as God has called each one, the call of God when used in Paul is always used what we call effectual call. That simply means a call that is effective. It results in salvation so when we talk about God calling you, when he called you and by his grace moved you and you responded and believed. That’s different than how it is used in the Gospels for instance. Jesus said many are called but few are chosen. He is referring to a call in general. Paul always uses this to a call that is effective and that results in salvation. So when he says that God has called each one and he connects that to God has assigned to each one. So when he called you, part of that call (that is true of the spiritual gifts later in chapter 12] was to bestow a gift that enabled you to be placed in the body of Christ to function as a necessary part of that body. So here he called you. How do I know? Well what was your situation when he called you? Well I was working this job, I was married to this person, I was a Jew, I was a Gentile. The point he is going to develop in this manner, let him walk.

So salvation does not require a change. Now that does not mean there can’t be a change, but be careful about thinking since I got saved; therefore, these kind of things I must now change. Sometimes the enthusiasm as a new believer is great but it needs to be directed. Now this is Paul’s plan, not just for the church of Corinth and so I direct in all the churches. We are not going there for time but he gives this kind of statement several times in the letter of Corinthians. This is what he says in all the churches, this is what he treats everywhere. This is something that is true for all of us. He gives an example. Note now, none of these examples in this particular paragraph will have to do with marriage. Even though the broader context is marriage and that is where its major application is.

Here he wants to see it applied in other cases. Was any man called when he was circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing. What matters is keeping the commandments of God. We are not talking about the Mosaic commandments there but God’s commands now as his people in the church. The point is what – well, I’m saved and I was Jewish, but God is building the church now. He is not primarily working through the nation Israel so therefore I ought to try to abandon them and my Jewish ought to become more Gentile. And Gentiles held the pressure the Jews held the background for all that God is doing and the Savior of the Gentiles is the Jewish Messiah. You ought to conform more to Jewishness. As to the point of circumcision or uncircumcision is nothing. It is not an issue.

Your ethnic condition, sometimes Americans have gotten confused in this. They go to evangelize another part of the world and they don’t keep clear that we are here to bring the Gospel not to Americanize them. And now we are going to bring them the Gospel and they can learn to dress like Americans and sing music that we in America sing and do all that and what do we do? Well somebody saved in Africa and still continues to dress in their African dress and like their African style music. They are going to learn now they have to have good theology in their music but they don’t have to have the style of music or the style of dress or whatever. That’s what Paul is saying, they had Jews and Gentiles mixed together, they didn’t have separate churches either. We just mixed together and appreciate they are different so we could have people come here and they dress in their native clothes that they have come to this country and still want to wear. So fine. They want to eat that food that I can’t eat, fine. And when I come to your house, try to make a compromise. But no, we don’t have to change that. That’s not the issue. Paul here lays the foundation in ethnic matters. Where it was a battle ground in these churches. Where you had Jews get saved even in a city like Corinth and they come into the church and want to impress on these Gentiles the advantage of Jewishness, that we have the heritage or the Gentiles telling the Jews you know God not dealing with the way he did in the Old Testament. You know Paul said we are free from the Lord so you ought to have a ham sandwich and get over it. No, you don’t have to do that. So nothing changed in the ethnicities there.

Then he comes back in verse 20 and repeats what he said in 1 Corinthians7:20, “Let each man remain in that condition in which he was called.” Here’s another example, were you called a slave? Don’t worry about it. Well I’m saved, I’m a slave. There were a lot of slaves in those days. You became a slave in a variety of ways. Some people became a slave because they chose to sell themselves into slavery for one reason or another. There was a potential financial benefit in some circumstances if you did that. Now a person gets saved they are thinking, you know that was a mistake. If the Lord had saved me, three years ago I would have never made that decision. I’m now a believer and besides look back in chapter 6:20, “For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” I belong to Christ, I’m his slave; I can’t be a slave now as a human master. Don’t worry about it. But he does note if you are able to become free, do that.

Slavery in biblical times, there were a lot of people but a variety of kinds of slaves. Interestingly for most of them, slavery was not a life-long situation. Most people were freed out of their slavery by the time they were 30. One of the reasons was what? You have slaves to do what – work. What good is a slave my age? You are just eating food and have to be housed and taken care of. So it was common for slaves as they got older to be set free. Also slaves could purchase their slavery. Average time of slavery was 7 years.

At any rate don’t get upset about it. A situation can change, Paul’s point is that it is not required for your salvation. So don’t connect that. Each man must remain in the condition in which he was called. That was the principle. Your salvation does not require a change in your situation. Whether it is your ethnic condition, whether it is your job situation or your social setting. But if you have an opportunity to improve yourself here, a slave shouldn’t think, “God saved me when I was a slave. Now my master says I can be set free and that would be a great benefit and blessing. But if God saved me when I was set free, I have to tell them no, I can’t do that.” No, you have to be careful that we are handling scripture properly. He who was called to the Lord while in slavery is the Lord’s free man and likewise he who was called while free is Christ’s slave. Understand this doesn’t change anything. If you are a slave in the human realm, you can be set free in Christ. “If the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” The fact that I am enslaved to this human master, I know that in my heart the living God has set me free. And the person who is not a slave, maybe a master realizes that by the grace of God I have been made a slave of the Savior that I now serve.

Same kind of argument Paul used in James used in Chapter 1 if you remember. For the wealthy you ought to be humble. To think what God has done for you in Christ. For those who are in poverty you ought to be amazed at the riches you have in Christ. Now in other words these external things are not what matters in our salvation. You are bought with a price so do not become the slaves of man. Wait a minute, isn’t that confusing. Didn’t you just tell me that it’s alright to be a slave and now you say don’t become slaves of men. You have to take it in the context, right? What’s he saying? You see yourself as you truly are. You are a slave of the living God, you are a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is true no matter what you are physically in this life. You may be the lowest slave in the realm of men but you are a slave of Christ. So you are serving Christ ultimately.

So in another letter, that’s what Paul’s exhortation is to a slave. You do your service not as to men but as to God. Because that is who I am. We get caught up, “Oh I could serve the Lord so much better if I could own the company rather than just be the janitor of the company. I could do this and be so much more effective to the Lord if I wasn’t tied to this believer. I could be……” No, do you think the Lord didn’t know what he was doing when He called you in the situation you are in. Do you think the Lord was saying, “Oh boy we missed it Gabriel. We should have called them a year earlier when they would have been in a situation I would really like to have them in.” The Lord is never in that situation. That’s a great comfort to us. I am exactly what the Lord intends me to be. In the right relationship, married, single, owning a company, working in the company, Gentile, Jew, on it goes. “Brethren,” verse 24, “let each one remain with God in that condition in which he was called.” Simple statement.

Again that doesn’t mean you can’t change your situation. He’s already talked about changes that can come. A believer doesn’t want to live with an unbeliever. If you are single, but you have the passion and a desire for sexual fulfillment you can get married. The point is, it’s not your salvation that requires a change in these situations. God called us and at least for now if I was saved today the situation I’m in today regarding marriage, regarding job, regarding everything else is what it is. That is what God has assigned me to do today. By His Grace, he saved me today in this way.

We sang one of Fanny Crosby’s hymns earlier. Most of you know the story of how she was blinded as a young girl. Oh, if she’s going to get saved, think of what she could have done for the Lord if the Lord would have had it all under control. She spent her life thinking of what she could have done for the Lord if she would have had her eyes. Oh, what’s a blind lady to do, I can’t ---- the Lord is sovereign. We sing her hymns today. He distributed to her as was right for her. Could he have prevented her from being blinded as a young child? Of course, but He chose not to. Did He plan to call her to Himself? Yes He did. Did He plan to call her to Himself blinded? Yes. Was her blindness a hindrance that being with God would bring to her? No. You know we bring frustration and turmoil into our lives because we think if the Lord would only do this. If the Lord would only enable me to have more money, if the Lord would only have given me a different spouse, if the Lord would only – relax. Lord, You are great. I keep reminding Marilyn, you have the husband God intended. If this is God’s blessing for you, He gave it. I mean we just …….. I don’t have to be thinking, “Lord this has to change, now I’m a Christian.” I have to stop sinning but I don’t have to change my marriage situation, I don’t have to change my job situation. I don’t have to try to act more like an American or more like an African, or more like a Jew or more like ----. God saved me as I am. That’s why I encourage people to just come to know the Lord, settle in to serve him and please Him where you are. It doesn’t mean that you don’t provide for changes in your life. Doesn’t mean he is not going to have you leave that job and prepare for the ministry fulltime or move you to another job where he wants to use you differently. But relax – sometimes we just need to be used by the Lord where He has placed us, right? Where He called us. Part of His plan was to bring us into that situation where He would call us into salvation so that He could use us in that situation. How great an awesome God, how He is so great and so much in control of all the details that He brings everyone where He intends them to be so they are doing what He --- so He calls him to Himself and they are prepared to be used. You know my mind cannot grasp that, but it takes the pressure off of me to know, right? I don’t have to take care of that, He can.

I love what he says about the slaves, verse 21, “Were you called while a slave? Don’t worry about it.” Put that on your refrigerator, “don’t worry about it.” You know it’s in the Lords hands, don’t worry about it. I’m a slave, I don’t have a life of my own, I’m considered to be a possession to be bought and sold, don’t worry about it. I’m now saved, I’m a slave of Christ. I have to get free to serve him. Don’t worry about it. So as Christ says, don’t be anxious about your life. Relax. Not because of human thinking, not the power of positive thinking, but the power of biblical thinking. I serve a God who is in control, there can be changes in my life but salvation does not require a change. You don’t know my spouse. No I don’t but Lord, You do, and here is where You placed me. Nobody else knows, you know and the Lord knows. So we can leave it in His hands. That’s the God we serve.

Let us pray together. Thank You Lord for Your grace, the greatness of that grace, the sufficiency of that grace, Lord, the grace that is far more encompassing then we can comprehend with these finite minds. Thank You Lord for this salvation in Your son, Lord this overwhelming grace that brought us to salvation, that cleansed us, made us new, privileged us that we become slaves of the Christ that we love and serve. Thank You Lord, that in that call You have assigned and distributed to each one of us, certain privileges, opportunities and blessings in serving You in different ways and different settings. What a comfort and assurance that it is to know that we can serve You where we are, where You called us and know that God will guide us and direct us all the days of our lives as You lead us where You would have us to be, to do what You would have us to do. Lord, thank You that we don’t have to worry about this life, the things of this life, the difficulties and pressures of this life, because You have everything under control. Everything that pertains to us as Your children under perfect control and in preparing us for glory, we give You praise, Amen