Christian Cooperation and Separation - John R Rice
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<strong>Christian</strong> <strong>Cooperation</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Separation</strong><br />
fellowship <strong>and</strong> let him influence you in spiritual matters, or let<br />
him help control your moral <strong>and</strong> spiritual values, that would<br />
be a sin. That is forbidden. To yoke up with unbelievers is<br />
wrong.<br />
That is not a yoke when I buy groceries from a grocer <strong>and</strong><br />
pay him cash. No spiritual relationship is involved. He cannot<br />
tell me how to raise my children, where to go to church,<br />
whether I should pray, whether I believe the Bible or not.<br />
I am just saying that on some secular matters <strong>Christian</strong>s<br />
can go along. We can’t get out of this world. We ride on the<br />
same buses, the same trains <strong>and</strong> planes; we go to the same<br />
schools sometimes. But on spiritual matters we are not to tie<br />
the <strong>Christian</strong> <strong>and</strong> a lost person together.<br />
The Bible so clearly shows the great gulf between saved<br />
<strong>and</strong> lost. One is the temple of God, the other the temple of<br />
Satan, or an idol. Light <strong>and</strong> darkness are not the same. It is<br />
foolish to suppose that a man with a new heart <strong>and</strong> a man<br />
with the old Devil-possessed heart can be alike. They are not<br />
alike. If they pretend they are, then somebody is deceitful <strong>and</strong><br />
wicked. It is always wrong to pretend there is no difference<br />
between God <strong>and</strong> the Devil, between Heaven <strong>and</strong> Hell,<br />
between believers <strong>and</strong> infidels. There is a vast gulf of<br />
difference.<br />
Then that means that a man who is not saved is not to be<br />
received in the church. An unsaved man shouldn’t be in a<br />
pastor’s association. If he is going to join, I can’t.<br />
An Irishman one time got on a horse. It was a very hot day.<br />
The flies were bad. (You city slickers, you younger generation,<br />
you hot-rod generation don’t underst<strong>and</strong> about horses.) Pat got<br />
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