1 Corinthians chapter 7 and verses 32 through 35. Here again, the Word of God. But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the woman who is unmarried and the virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit, but the one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. And this I say for your own benefit, not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is seemly and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord. We've been talking about the matter of anxiety, and in our text this morning, we come to that same word in the New American Standard Version. It is translated concerned or concern, but I want you to be free from concern in verse 32. And we're going to be talking this morning, I guess, on a negative side of that word. And in another time, we're going to be talking on the positive side of that word. And I want to, as we get started this morning, review some ground which we have covered. From the Sermon on the Mount, we saw that there are three key points concerning anxiety. Jesus said that we shouldn't be anxious about what we're going to eat or what we're going to wear or We shouldn't be anxious about the future. And the solution that Jesus set before us was very simple. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you. Unfortunately, we are consumed with anxiety over what we'll eat and what we will wear and about the future very often. And we lose our focus on Jesus Christ and don't properly seek his kingdom. And of course, the message of the kingdom involves the message of the lordship of Christ and the fact that God is the one who is in control of all things. We've said that anxiety is a control issue, and we are anxious about many things because we sense we do not control the issues of our lives the way we would like to. But God is the one who is in ultimate control. We need to realize that, and so we need to take heed to the message of the kingdom. Jesus comes along then in Matthew 13, in the parable of the sower, and warns us that anxiety chokes the Word, and we do not bear fruit. The fruit, of course, is the fruit of the Spirit, the love, joy, peace, which is the very opposite of anxiety. And when we are experiencing anxiety, the message of the kingdom is choked out of our lives. And the solution is to regain focus upon Jesus Christ. We then proceeded to another area of anxiety, and that was speech, anxious speech. And we saw from the words of Jesus that there are many areas in our lives where we encounter hostile situations, or legal situations, litigious situations, or intimidating situations where anxiety rises. And again, interestingly enough, the solution is to maintain focus on Jesus Christ. Last time we took a little bit different tack from the Word of God and we saw that anxiety literally distracts that focus on Jesus Christ and causes us to be nearsighted. We are to have eternal perspective on all of life. Every facet of life has eternal perspective, should have eternal perspective. And we are to maintain focus on primarily the coming of Jesus Christ. The second coming of Christ is the main event. This life is not the main event. This life is a preparation for the coming of Christ. And we need to understand that that's the case and not be nearsighted and lose our focus on the coming of Jesus Christ. Today, we add another area or another place, another facet of life which occasions anxiety. Our relationships with others, our relationships with one another. And who is it in this room today who can say that our relationships with others do not occasion anxiety? I, for one, will say yes. relationships of all sorts, occasion anxiety. And that, I think, is the bottom line as we look at our text this morning. And what I'm laying before you this morning is quite simple, that our relationships can either be vehicles for the discovery of God's mercies, or they can be distractions from God. That can happen. Either of those things can happen. And we are not to lose our focus on the things of God. This is what our text tells us. I want to read it again. But I want you to be free from concern, free from anxiety. This is very amazing. But I want you to be free from anxiety. One who is unmarried anxious, concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife. His interests are divided. You see, the concern here for Paul, what Paul is anxious about, is the fact that we have undivided devotion to the Lord. Paul is not looking down on marriage, and I think we have to get this straight once again. Verse 34, his interests are divided. And the woman who is unmarried and the virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit, but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. And this I say for your own benefit, not to put a restraint on you, See, the position of Paul is not to restrain people from marriage, but to raise the flag and tell people that in relationships, and marriage is a primary one, concerns, anxieties can divert our attention and we can have divided hearts. And so he says in verse 35, And this I say for your own profit, not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is seemly and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord. Now, Paul is talking about marriage here, but what he has to say, folks, applies to all the relationships of life. And I've got to stress that so we don't get distracted from the main issue. anxieties occasioned by our relationships, okay? And I want you to see that Paul is placing what he has to say in a very specific context. Because, as I say in point one of our outline, we all face many warlike situations in our fallen world. which are both physical and spiritual, which are both individual and corporate. And Paul has a specific context in mind. Go up, if you will, in 1 Corinthians 7 to verse 26, okay? I think then that it is good in view of the present distress that it is good for a man to remain as he is. The context is what Paul calls the present distress, or as some versions have it, the impending distress. And what Paul is talking about is distress that occurs in war-like situations, in situations where we find ourselves in mortal combat. This is incredibly interesting. It really is. I'm excited about this, and I'm looking at some of you, and you're thinking to me, why is he so excited about this? Paul has got something profound to tell us here, I think. Because the context of what he says has to do with many war-like situations that press upon us. To help us get the flavor of what Paul is saying, I'd like you to turn back in your Bibles to Luke 21. To Luke 21, where Jesus speaks of the same sort of thing. Luke 21 and verses 20 through 24. But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is at hand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are in the midst of the city depart, and let not those who are in the country enter the city, because these are days of vengeance, in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Woe to those who are with child, and to those who nurse babes in those days, for there will be great distress upon the land, and wrath to this people and they will fall by the edge of the sword and will be led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles will be fulfilled, for there will be great distress upon the land." What Jesus is talking about here is the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. And he's talking about the armies of Titus coming, the Roman armies of Titus coming and surrounding the city of Jerusalem, and that city being absolutely devastated. Listen to what a couple of the commentators say. The first part of the prophecy in this verse became literally true. At the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, after a siege of about five months by a mighty Roman army under the command of Titus, the son of the emperor Vespasian, the Romans eventually overwhelmed the whole city, completely destroyed and plundered the temple, and slew tens of thousands of Jews, men, women, and children. And when they were satiated with the slaughter, they carried off the remainder as prisoners of war, so that not a single Jew was left alive in the city." This was a terrible circumstance. Another one of the commentators says, "'A siege brought about suffering to all, but especially to such people as pregnant women and those with young children. Josephus tells us that 97,000 were taken prisoners throughout the war, and 1,100,000 were killed in the siege. I mean, this was a bloodbath. This is what took place in Jerusalem. Now imagine, and just think about this for a minute. Do you suppose wives were a little bit worried about their husbands in this circumstance? Do you suppose husbands were a little bit anxious about their families in this circumstance? Do you suppose that children were a little bit anxious about their parents in this circumstance? See, this is what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, these kinds of desperate warlike circumstances that come upon us. Almost every generation in America has faced combat, mortal combat, in a war. In the 40s, it was World War II. And there are those still with us who are veterans of that time. We're celebrating the fiftieth anniversary at this present time of V-E Day, victory over Europe. The distress of war. In the fifties, it was the Korean War. One of my college classmates was a Korean War veteran, and he talked about some of the things that he went through. In the sixties, it was the Vietnam War, and some of us in this room know about that in a more intimate way. And when you have the smell of death in your nostrils and the odor of death permeates your clothing, you don't forget those things. And there are anxious times associated with those things. Let's change it just a little bit. Let's change our understanding of it just slightly. And know, dear friends, in this day and age, we are in the midst of desperate spiritual warfare. And there are great anxieties occasioned by that spiritual warfare. The theologian John Newhouse, Richard John Newhouse, says this about theological education. Listen to this. Theological education has become in very large part the games which lost people play to entertain one another in order to distract their minds from the thought they can't go home again. Theological education, he says, involves games which lost souls play to entertain themselves in order to distract themselves from the thought that they can't go home again. You know what theological education ought to be? Theological education ought to be the study of this book which brings us into the presence of the living God, and it ought not to be a study which leads people away from God, a distraction from God. And in too many places, that's the case. That is warfare, friends. That is warfare. And if we don't understand that that's the case, We have got a long way to go. A book was lent to us by a fellow called Thomas Oden, who happens to be a Methodist, but he speaks about what happened to him in a communion service. And I'd like to read this to you, because I think it's absolutely phenomenal. In a communion service, He says, I pondered whether I could in good conscience stay to receive Holy Communion. This was my first experience ever in thinking about withdrawing from a communion service because something offensive to the Lordship of Christ was occurring right there at the Lord's table. It was becoming clear to me that the God worshipped in this fantasy land was not the triune God made flesh in Jesus Christ, but the reified persona of Sophia, distinguishable from the Trinity. I began to consider how I might inconspicuously withdraw from the service without making a scene. Just at that time, he says, the homilist herself gave me the decisive clue. She urged the gathering not to delay in asserting their convictions. She said that the longer feminists delayed asserting their authority in worship, the more difficult it would be. Then she offered the invitation to come to the Lord's table Not in the Lord's name, but in the name of a goddess who was speaking through Jesus. This was a very carefully worded rhetorical device. The inviter was not the crucified Lord of Glory, but the Sophia figure who was speaking through him by her authority. Ironically, we were being invited to the table of Jesus Christ, but only in her name. That did it, he said. I decided that she was inadvertently correct, that I could not delay making some attestation of the authority of Jesus Christ in the Holy Communion, and he got up and left." That is war. That is war. And people today are being taught this sort of thing in preparation to minister in communities, folks, like our community. There is war going on, and it is at a corporate level and it is at an individual level. When a professor in a college stands up and says that Jesus Christ is not the only way to heaven, but there are a plethora of ways to heaven, and Jesus Christ is not the only way, that professor is assaulting our children, our students, and making war on Jesus Christ in the lives of our people. There is war going on. And that's what Paul is talking about. And this kind of warfare is the occasion of all sorts of anxiety. That's what Paul is telling us. We live in perilous times, and we need to understand that that's the case. And I'll tell you, folks, that I know in a very personal way how those anxieties can arise. I remember very well, several years ago, having to go home and tell my wife that I had just received orders for Vietnam. And we thought we had been betrayed. Because we had been assured of the length of time we would be in our current assignment. And we thought to ourselves, our superiors have betrayed us. And when your loved one goes off to a place where He may not come back. There is anxiety. This is what we're talking about. I want you to look at 1 Corinthians 7 again. And verses 32 and 35, because I want you to see Paul's bottom line. I want you to see Paul's bottom line here. Verse 32. But I want you to be free. I want you to be free from anxiety. That's what he's saying. How exciting that is. How good it is. Verse 35. This I say for your own benefit, not to put a restraint on you, but to promote what is seemly and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord. You see, this is Paul's bottom line. On one hand, he says, I want you to be free. I'm reminded of Galatians immediately, that we are to enjoy the freedom with which Christ has set us free. That's the direction we are going in understanding the gospel and the greatness of God. Freedom comes. I want you to be free from anxiety, from concern, he says. From the bad kind of concern. We're going to talk about the fact later that there's a good kind of concern. There's a good kind of stress. There's a good kind of anxiety. We're going to see that in the Apostle Paul. But for now, he's telling us something different. And he says, and this again is his bottom line, he says, I want in your lives undistracted devotion to the Lord. This is exactly what we were talking about last week, those of you who were here. That anxiety distracts us and we become nearsighted. Let's look at a key example of how this takes place. Go back with me, if you would, to Luke chapter 10. We read this text earlier, Luke chapter 10. Interestingly enough, the very same words used by Paul are used by Jesus in this particular text and in this particular story. And there are many of us in this auditorium this morning who can identify, on one side or the other, with what is taking place. Luke 10.38. Now, as they were traveling along, he entered a certain village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. And she had a sister called Mary, who moreover was listening to the Lord's words, seated at his feet. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations. And she came up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me. But the Lord answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered by so many things. But only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her." The relationship that Jesus had with Mary and Martha was very important. Time and time again he would repair to that house and be with those ladies and find a place of comfort, a place where He could just be away from the crowd. And on this occasion, Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus. And you can identify with Martha, can't you? Here she is, scurrying around. Here's Jesus and those other folks that are there. And golly, a lot of preparation has to be done. What are we going to eat? You know, what are we going to eat? Anxiety about the food, of course. But all these preparations have to be made. Martha was distracted with all her preparations. Jesus says, Martha, Martha, you're worried and bothered. about so many things. Most of us identify with Martha, don't we? Because when the guests come, we're consumed with the preparations, and very often the preparations and our being involved with the preparations, the way we are, we lose sight of the fact that the reason these people are here is so we can visit with them a little bit. I've even been in the circumstances where I've used the preparations for a gathering to hide, so that I wouldn't have to visit with the people that were there. Bothered, anxious, worried about so many things, distracted from the principal thing at hand, And in this circumstance, what was the principal thing at hand? Verse 39 says, And she had a sister Mary, who moreover was listening to the Lord's word, and seated at his feet. Well, that silly woman, doesn't she know that there has to be some work done in the house, and here she is sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his words. Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only a few things are necessary, really one, for Mary has chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her." What was the good part? The good part was sitting at the feet of Jesus and giving attention to Jesus and being in the presence of the Lord Jesus, that was the good part. That was the important part. And how often we lose that perspective because of the anxieties of life that come our way. It is absolutely phenomenal to me the way there is a consistency in the text we have been looking at regarding anxiety. We've been looking at one word in the New Testament which is translated anxiety or worry. And in each case, there is an emphasis on the fact that our attention needs to be upon Jesus Christ. In each case. Back again, please, to 1 Corinthians 7. You see, what we have before us, it seems, is an important lesson regarding all of our relationships. Because our relationships, which do occasion anxieties—there's no doubt about it, Jesus knows that, Paul knows that, this happens, it's real, we cannot deny it—our anxieties and our relationships, or our relationships which do occasion these anxieties, can either be, as I said earlier, occasion for discovering God's mercies or being distracted from God. And this is true in every relationship of life I submit to you. I can't count the times I have gone home and in the midst of a particular struggle, embraced my wife and said these words. I'm sure glad we have us. And I really mean that. And you know what the answer invariably is? So am I. And in the midst of whatever the anxiety or struggle may be, We experience the love and the mercy and the care of God. That happens to us. Why? I'll tell you why. Because we know, although we don't play it out all the time the way it ought to be, we know that the reason for our marriage and the reason for our home is to give glory to God. The reason for our relationship, friends, and the reason for our relationships is not to cause anxieties. That's not the reason for it. That's not the purpose God puts us together. The reason God puts us together is to display His love. The reason for marriage is to be a picture of the love God has for His people. And that love is to be displayed between a husband and a wife. And when that love is displayed and literally experienced, you do experience the love and the care and the mercy and the grace of God. And that relationship becomes an occasion for understanding the grace of God in a deeper way. That's a wonderful thing. Family and friends are gifts from God. We sang about that from Psalm 127 just moments ago. Children are a gift from God. They are opportunities to experience the grace of God. and employments, our jobs, our callings, they are all opportunities to experience the grace of God. Sure, there are occasions for anxiety, but if we live down on a horizontal plane all of the time, where we do not have eternal perspective, we're going to be consumed by those anxieties, and we're not going to see the fact. that all those relationships are occasions for us to experience the grace of God. I forget how long ago it was that the movie Schindler's List was popular, and more than one person asked me if I wanted to see that movie, and I said, no, I don't. I didn't go. I didn't want to see it. One of the reasons was that when I was a little guy, my aunt, My mother's sister took me to see all of those horrible pictures from World War II of the ovens and the bodies piled and all of that jazz, and I just couldn't bear to go see the movie. I didn't want to see it. And I later read a review of the movie, Schindler's List. Of course, it got rave reviews. And the individual who reviewed the movie asked this particular review anyway, asked a question. He said, why was it that this man Schindler turned from an individual who built a factory in order to make a buck in Germany to an individual who gave his life so that many Jewish people could find freedom? What was it that changed this man? And in the next sentence, the reviewer said, we shouldn't even bother to ask that question because it ruins the mystique of the movie. And I said to myself, you've got to be kidding me. You've got to be kidding me. That's terrible. And the reason that's terrible is it's a manifestation of the fact that in our society and in our culture, We are not eternally connected the way we ought to be. And without that eternal connection, a movie like Schindler's List just causes more anxiety, more turmoil of heart. And that is what has happened in a lot of people's lives as a result of that movie. It's absolutely amazing. So what is the lesson? Here's the lesson, folks. It's plain and it's simple. Verse 32 of 1 Corinthians 7, I want you to be free from concern or anxiety. Verse 35, I do not say this to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is seemly, to secure undistracted attention, devotion to the Lord. That's where your heart needs to be. That's where my heart needs to be. Let's pray. Father, I pray, I pray that in us will be secured undistracted devotion to the Lord. And I pray, Father, that we will see our relationships in life not as distractions from you, but as opportunities to see your love and grace in operation. I pray that that will be the case. Move in us to that end. I pray in Jesus' name.