46. All Converted Alike

SERMON 46

ALL CONVERTED ALIKE ( 1 Corinthians 1:10. )

Perhaps no expression has become of more general use than the one expression, "We can't all see alike," and perhaps no expression was ever so full of deception nor farther from the truth than this one is. Therefore, a careful examination will do us good on this point.

In using the word see, no religious teacher uses it in the sense of sight, but faith; for all agree that religiously we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Then when they say we can't all see alike they mean we can't all believe alike. Judging from their different contradictory teachings one would certainly believe it to be true. But ask them all, "Is it right to teach the Bible?" All answer, "Yes, men should preach nothing but the Bible."

Let four denominational preachers preach four nights, all in the same house, to the same people, all claiming to teach the same Book, which exhorts us to be of the same mind and speak the same thing. A says he will preach nothing but the Bible. He preaches once in grace always in grace; no man from grace can fall, neither does any man believe the Bible who teaches he can fall.

Tomorrow night B preaches. He says a child of God can apostatize, and fall away, and be finally lost, and no one who believes the Bible can believe to the contrary.

The third night C preaches out of the same Bible, and he teaches that immersion only is baptism, and if a man is not immersed he is not baptized; The fourth night D preaches that one drop will do as well as an ocean; just as the heart is all right it makes no difference about the water All of these four men are claiming to teach the same Book, coming from the same God. All of them claim to be called and sent and are special pets of heaven, are doing the will of God, are preaching the same Bible, and that it is impossible for God to Help.

There are many school houses where this kind of preaching is carried on every month in the year. No wonder it is, then, that we have so many disbelievers in the Bible.

But I ask again, Is it true, as they claim, that we can't all see alike? Is it right for four men to teach four different ways? Why not just employ one man at a place, and let him teach the four different ways and send the other three where there is no preacher? But they all claim it is wrong for A to preach B's doctrine, because A doesn't believe. Yes, but you first said it was right to preach the Bible, and B says he got his doctrine from the Bible, and A says B is a Christian, and calls on him to lead in prayer at A's meeting; calls him Brother, says he and Brother B can't see alike. But then all claim to be sent by the same God, and all claim God hears and answers their prayers. Then, I ask again, why not let A preach all tour doctrines, provided they are all found in the Bible? But this deception does not stop here.

A, B. C, and D will sometimes decide for a grand union meeting. All arrangements will be made, the meeting held, outpouring of the Holy Spirit will come (so they claim), forty will be converted in answer to prayer. During the meeting the forty will be of the same mind, speaking the same thing. But the last night of the meeting comes. All the young converts will be instructed to go out and pray, as the Spirit will tell them which church to join.

The meeting is over, the doors of the four churches are opened. (Just three more than Christ ever had.) Ten will join A's church and leave arguing once in grace always in grace. Ten will join B's church and go out arguing man can tall from grace, and many of us will fall before next July. Ten will join C's church, and go off arguing baptism is nonessential, but the mode is essential. I must do a nonessential thing by a very essential mode. If I am not baptized by immersion I am not baptized at all. The remaining ten will join D's church, and argue how indecent is immersion: sprinkling and pouring will do as well. With this kind of performance no wonder we have so much infidelity. When these scenes can be enacted under the head of Christianity. I denounce them all as of human origin, deceptive in their teaching, contradictory in statement, unscriptural in the whole, a slander on the God of the Bible, and no one was ever made a Christian by them.

I once knew one of these called-and-sent preachers, who, for twenty years, preached once in grace always in grace, immersion only is baptism; and after preaching for twenty years I suppose his God decided he had made a mistake; for he came to the Conference that I was examined in and got my license to preach (before I became a member of the church of Christ), and claimed that God had called him to preach in that church, and for a number of years he has been preaching that a man can tall from grace, and that sprinkling for baptism will do.

This brings me to the second line of thought. Does God require us all to see or believe alike? Christ taught that a kingdom divided against itself could not stand (Mark 3:24; Mark 3:26). Christ prayed that his children might be one, that the world might believe that God had sent him (John 17:20-21). In 1 Corinthians 1:10 Paul besought the church of Christ at Corinth to be of the same mind, and to speak the same thing, and to be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. But how can we do this? Peter says, "It any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (1 Peter 4:11).

With these scriptures before us, no man can believe that the present divided condition of the religious world today can be of God. Neither is this system perpetuated by the authority of God. Hence we must conclude they are of men, and are doing harm instead of good—sowing the seeds of infidelity in many good and honest hearts, who might be Christians if it were not for these. No man can become a member of them without becoming a party to their wicked work. Hence we expect all truth-seekers to look well to this end and obey God rather than man.

In the third place I call attention that in all salvations brought to man either in type or antitype, God has commanded the "what" and told the "how"; and that no man can claim to be saved by God who will not do the "what" through the revealed "how."

Two examples on this point will suffice. God told Israel they must take Jericho (Joshua 6). The "how', was that they must march around the city seven times. The last day they had to observe the "how" as well as the "what" before the city was taken. Again, Cod commands us to believe (John 20:30). He gives the "how" through the teaching of the apostles (John 17:20). So it is through all the lines of obedience. IL men will observe the "what" through the "how" it will be impossible for them to see things differently.

In the fourth place I notice that in each dispensation God has only one plan at a time for saving man; and that men had to see them alike and obey them alike in order to be saved. God had only one plan of salvation from the flood. All that were saved were saved alike in the ark.

God had one plan and only one for the salvation of Lot and his two daughters when Sodom fell. All had to escape to the mountain for their lives, and not look behind them. But Mrs. Lot could not see it that way, but looked back, and even Christ tells us to remember Lot's wife.

God had only one way of saving Israel from Egyptian bondage. All had to pass through the sea and the wilderness to reach the promised land. So it is under the Christian age. We must do the will of God to be saved; must build on the rock and not on the sand; must believe the same things, must obey the same commandments, must walk in the same narrow way. Hence we must see things alike (Matthew 7:13-24).

I note in the fifth and last place that men are taught to see alike, commanded to see alike when they are willing to be governed by the word of God alone, and believe all things commanded of him. In the Old Bible I read that Noah was saved in the ark. All preachers in all churches, can see that alike, because they can believe that part of the Bible and not conflict with any one's religious theory.

Naaman had to dip himself seven times in the Jordan before he was cleansed from his leprosy. We can all see that alike because all can believe the Bible and it does not conflict with any one's religious theory.

.......But I read again: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). We can't all see that alike. Why? Because some of us do not believe that part of the Bible. We can not believe that part of the Bible without conflicting with our religious theory, and with the doctrine of my church. This, dear reader, is the foundation of the whole system of not seeing things alike. It grows out of a disbelief in the Bible. It is infidelity. Then, I ask seriously if a man can disbelieve one part of the Bible and be saved by not disbelieving another part, why not disbelieve all?

Let me plead with you to accept the whole truth, believe and obey the word of God, and finally be saved.