Good morning. Good morning friends Welcome to Coffee and devotions. It's so good to have you. Jump on the computer here. Make sure everybody's able to join us live. One second we'll make sure everybody's able to join us live online almost there Wonderful. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions. This for every day you and I we get together. We have a lot of coffee. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together in this year 2022. We're going to try our best to get from the book of Acts to the book of fight Lehman. We are marching right along here. We're at first Corinthians chapter seven. And we'll be picking up at verse 25. This morning and going through the end of the chapter together. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for Your Word. We thank you for giving us the blessing of reading it this morning. And we pray God that you would be teaching us please encourage us, Lord, please let us know who you are, and the ways to walk before you in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, so we're at First Corinthians seven, First Corinthians chapter seven. And we'll be picking up verse 25. I do want to just make a quick mention here. My hair has been getting really, really long, because we've been waiting for new hair clippers to come in the mail and Olivia got new hair clippers, and she's the one who cuts my hair and well. The top was shorter than we anticipated. The number five isn't always the same as another number five or number four, whatever it was, and so she said, Oh no, what are we going to do? I said, well give it we can have it'll be fine. So let's go ahead. Let's get into God's Word. Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord. Yet I give judgment as one, whom the Lord in His mercy has made trustworthy I suppose. Therefore, this is good because of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you bound Are you loose from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But even if you do, Mary, you have not sinned. And if a Virgin Mary's, she has not sinned. Nevertheless, such will have trouble in the flesh. But I will spare you. I would spare you. But this I say, brethren, the time is short, that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none. Those who weep as though they did not weep those who rejoice as they did not rejoice, those who buy as those who did not possess and those who use this world as not misusing it, for the form of this world is passing away. But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord, how he may please Lord, but he who is married and cares about the things of the world, how he may please his wife. There is a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit, but is married it cares about the things of the world, how she may please her husband and this I say for your own profit. Not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction. But if any man thinks he is behaving improperly toward his virgin, if she has passed the flower of youth and thus it must be letting him do what he wishes. He does not sin, let her marry
or let them marry. Nevertheless, he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but has power over his will, and has so determined in his heart that he will keep his virgin does well. So then he who gives her in marriage does well, but he who does not give her in marriage does better. And a wife is bound by law as long as her husband lives. But if her husband dies, she is at liberty to marry whom she wishes only in the Lord. But she is happier if she remains as she is according to my judgment. And I think I also have the Spirit of God. Well, we need to ask ourselves a What is this about? Be what's the best verses summarize this and see, what are we called to do in response to this right so a, what is this? About? Well, Paul's talking about? virgins, right? He's talking about unmarried people, young people. He's talking about widows. He's talking about engaged people, right? He's talking about how do we conduct ourselves knowing that it's the last days by the way, it's been the last days the world has been has been fading away since Jesus ascended into heaven. Right. So so just know that for last 2000 years, this has been the case of what's been going on here. And so what's Paul getting out here? Right. So he's saying, I'm going to talk to you about something that Jesus didn't speak about, right. So when he says in verse 25, I have no commandment from the Lord saying, I'm gonna I'm gonna teach you some stuff here. But it's not coming from Jesus didn't Jesus didn't teach us this, but this was coming from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through me, Paul Ryan, and we know that this is coming from the Lord because or from the Holy Spirit of the Lord. But but not from the lips of the incarnate Christ. Because he says, he says, and I think I also have the Spirit of God, right? That's kind of tongue in cheek. He's saying, Alright, I'm an apostle. I'm a Prophet you. I'm not speaking of my own accord here, right? I'm speaking from the spirit. And so what's the instruction that he gives to them? Well, first, you know, he says, I suppose, therefore, that it is good, because of the present distress. That a man remain as he is. He says, Do you have a wife? stay married? Are you not married? stay single. Right? He says, but even if you do marry, you haven't said right. The cynics might think oh, you got to the cynics. As a as an actual group of philosophers at that time, they would think oh, you had to remain totally unhindered by the world totally free of possessions and relationships and stuff like that. And so you shouldn't marry people even though the cynic himself got married. But anyways, but the point being is that now if you get married, you're not sinning. Right? This is, this is good practical advice from from the Spirit Himself. Now, there is some law here as well. We're going to get into that in a moment. But the point being that whether you marry or you don't marry isn't a question of immoral, immoral. It's a question in the Spirit's mind here and coming through Paul as he's speaking of good and good. And what's the reality here? What's it getting that right? If you're gonna get married what does it mean to then live as if you weren't? Right? That what he's trying to say is that it's not what he's trying to say what I need to explain what this is about at the spirit is perfectly clear. And what he's saying
is that as we even get married, that is not to make us so consumed with the world so consumed with our marriages so consumed with the things of this life, that then we no longer are of any use to God. Right? That's what he's getting at here in the second paragraph, right. So that from the now on, even those who have wives should be as though they had none. He's not saying go get married and leave your spouse, go get married and walk away. That's not That's not what he's talking about. Right. He's saying that we needed to live in light of the view of the reality that Jesus is going to come back that there's Kingdom work to be done, that there is weeping to be had but the weeping we have is with rejoicing in the Holy Spirit, because the gospel turns the world on its head. It changes how we view everything. Including the ultimate goal of marriage. The ultimate goal of marriage is not just to build up a legacy and a progeny. It's not just to try to have as many children as possible and to build up our own little kingdoms. No no, that's what he's saying. That's not what you're supposed to be about. Now, it's good to leave a legacy. It's good to leave an inheritance for your children. The proverbs are filled with godly wisdom on things like this. But the question is, what type of legacy are you living leaving? Are you leaving a legacy of godliness? Are you leaving a legacy of holiness or leaving a legacy of Kingdom building? Not our kingdom but his kingdom. Even though you have a spouse, we shouldn't be consumed with the things of this world and that's what he's getting at. You he says, but I want you to be without care. This is verse 32. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. That's his primary concern because it's not married. Some of you watching or listening. You are not married. And you have lots of time to pray. If lots of time to work for the Lord, you have lots of times time to do things for Lord you have finances to give to the Lord things, opportunities of mercy that you have, because you're not as concerned with pleasing your spouse. Right? It's just the real necessity. I needed my haircut. And so my wife showed mercy to me and cut my hair, but that means she had to think about I need to order new clippers, and I need to cut Brian's here. It's gonna take time our children need things. We got to worry about shoes, we got to worry about bicycles, we got to worry about clothing, worry about schoolwork. We got to worry about them. We got to care about them. The unmarried person doesn't have that same level of concern. And so he's saying it's it's good for you not to be married. Now this remember is held in tension with what we looked at the other day that this is not if you are passionately burning to be married. But if you have that self control, if you have that will not be married. So be it. That's what he's getting at you. Right? And then he gets into this idea with even the virgins and, and there's some dispute here about verse 36. Maybe not dispute but discussion going on. I guess it depends. Some people dispute some people discuss I'm gonna say we discussed this in verse 36. But if any man thinks he is behaving improperly toward his virgin, if she has passed the flower of youth, and thus it must be let him do what he wishes. He does not sin, let them marry. Is this talking about fathers or is it talking about fiance's right? Is this a father who has a daughter and she wants to get married but he wants her to serve the Lord? Let her get married, right it let it get married, or if it's a fiance and and he has been betrothed to a woman. He's in a Greek and especially the Jewish mindset to be but trode to be engaged to someone and a break that Unionists is breaking a contract between the families. And so it doesn't matter right let them be married. I let them don't marry. It's okay. It's okay. If you're able to stay unmarried, Paul says right if you're able to be like I am sweet. Good. Serve the Lord with all your heart
but if you want to be married, if you feel the necessity to be united to somebody else, that's fine. Go do it. And so this this is what he's bringing out in this passage. But nevertheless, he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no necessity but has power over his own will and has so determined in his heart that he will keep his virgin does well, so then he who gives her in marriage as well, but he who does not give her in marriage does better, right. If there's a choice between the two and you're able to stay single, stay single. If you're not burning, right, if you have that self will that you don't have this nagging, burning passion to be joined together with somebody of the opposite of the opposite sex and and this desire to, to have children if you're able to be free from those concerns of the world. That's good. Right? We're not in a cult of marriage. Nor are we a cold a single hood. But God uses all sorts of people. In their different times and ways and personalities for His kingdom. And then he turns his gaze right now. Now he's going to talk about widows, they're, they're unmarried folk. They weren't married but not not now. They're not married. What does he say about them? A wife is bound by law. This is verse 39. No wife is bound by law as long as her husband lives. But if her husband dies, she has at liberty to be married to whom she wishes. Only in the Lord. If there's if there's a widow, her husband's dead. She's loose from marriage. She's able to remarry as long as he is in the Lord, right, because we must only marry those who are in Christ. We brought that up yesterday a little bit. When we talked about the person married to an to a non Christian. You must stay married to them. You know, they will just flee the marriage. Now you're able to let them go if they want to. But if your widow if or if you're unmarried person, you're not allowed to marry outside of the Lord or don't be unequally yoked to a non believer. And the Paul is going to get to that in the next book, Second Corinthians. But the point is, if you're going to be in the Lord together, you need to be in the Lord. To start with, right. If you want to have a godly life, you need to have a godly wife. If you want to have a godly marriage, you need to have a godly husband you need to be looking for somebody who's in the Lord. And there's all sorts of ways to do this, right? If especially in our day and age, you might live in an area where there aren't any singles around me. I think encourage you right, actually look, first boughs in the Lord, avail yourself of those resources that you might have. There's all sorts of Christian dating apps. Now be careful because there's all sorts of creeps and people who will say that they're Christians actually go, you might want to go talk to their elders and find out what type of Christian this person is to actually go to church every week. Are they actually in the Lord? Do they show the fruits of the Spirit, right? Don't just take somebody's word for it. But the point is, if you're if a woman's a widow she's free to marry or not marry as long as she's marrying in the Lord. This also goes for and I would argue, this also goes in case of if you have been loosened from that marriage right if your spouse has abandoned you left the marriage they they want nothing to do with you. And you've been loosed from that from that binding reality of your marriage. I would say that person is also in the same place as the widow here. Now there are going to be people who disagree with me. That's fine. You can write that down in the comments. And we can have a discussion about that's okay. But I think there is actually a provision for remarriage in the case of a godly divorce. Now I hear that correctly. There's sinful divorce and there is a sense of godly divorce. Many people who have had their spouses, cheat on them, do all sorts of evil things against them have gone and and defiled the marriage bed and join themselves together with harlots and other women and have the the offended spouse have then been shamed.
When reconciliation hasn't been possible when the marriage has been de luz dissolved, and then the church has shamed them when they go and remarry, even though they are the offended party, even though they are the ones who have been hurt even though they were the ones who are acting righteously. They still burned with this passion to be married. They still longed to have a godly marriage. I think this is the type of provision here that we see that remarriage is actually a biblical concept. Paul even says in one of his epistles, we'll Yeah, I think we're gonna get there if we actually get to fight Lehmann. We'll get into when Paul gets advice to the young widows in First Timothy. But she is happier if she remains as she is according to my judgment. And I think I also have the Spirit of God. She's, what's his last party saying Right? There widows? I know that one of one of the ladies in the church name is Gloria she's, she's a widow. Gloria is this wonderful woman who lives with her daughter now? She's in her 90s and Gloria prays constantly, right? That's her ministry.
That's what she gets to do. So I'm gonna let you we're we're way long here. There's been a lot to cover. Let me know down in the comments. What would you underline as
the best first to summarize this whole section? I need your help. There's we've covered way too much. I've gone way too long. Let me know down the comments, type it up. What would you underline in your Bible as the best first to summarize this? And I think calling we've already done calling quite a bit, but let me just end with this final couple pieces of application. If you are unmarried if you're a single person you still been joined to Christ. Right that is who our ultimate spouse is. The church is the bride and He is the groom. And so if you are unmarried, don't think that somehow God does not love you. Or has no place for you? No, he certainly does. God has poured love for you in Christ Jesus. So rejoice in that. Serve your king serve your spouse, love Christ. walk in his ways. If you're married Husbands, love your wives. As Christ loves the church. Live with them in an understanding way. Wives, Love Your Husbands. But don't live in such a way husbands and wives don't live in such a way as if your marriage is the end goal. Your marriage is meant to propel the kingdom of God. So birth widows, unmarried people, married people. Rejoice in the Lord. Serve Him with all your heart. Let's pray. Father, we thank You that You have given each one of us a station in life, a time and a position to exercise the graces and the gifts that you have given us. Father we pray, Holy Spirit might teach us what to do give us wisdom, Lord, how to walk in this life. Please let us have an eye towards your glory and the furthering of your kingdom. Thank you for the love you have shown us and Jesus in His name we pray. Amen. May God bless you today. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye
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