53. The World Upside Down

Sermon 53

One church (Acts 20:28)................Many churches Reconciled in Church(Ephesians 2:16)..Reconciled out of Church One way (Jno. 14:6)......................Many ways.

One body (Ephesians 4:4)......................Many bodies One spirit (Ephesians 4:4)......................Many spirits One baptism (Ephesians 4:5)..................Many baptisms One name (Romans 16:16).................Many names One faith (Ephesians 4:4)........................Many faiths One fold (Jno. 10:16)......................Many folds One place to build(Matthew 7:24).......Many places to build.

One vine (Jno. 15:1-5)....................Many vines One bride (Ephesians 5:23)....................Many brides

In the great commission that was to go to all the world, the Savior taught that the gospel must be preached (Mark 16:16).

Paul taught that this gospel was God's power to salvation (Romans 1:16) and that people were saved by this gospel (1 Corinthians 16:1-4). He also taught that if a man or an angel preached any other gospel let him be accursed (Galatians 1:7-9).

........Notwithstanding these instructions and restrictions, with the additional power of the Holy Ghost baptism to confirm the gospel taught by them, and notwithstanding their plainness speech, and miraculous confirmation of the same, the religious teachers of that age, who had turned from God and were teaching the commandments of men turned from the apostles in all towns, and raised prejudice against them just like human churches do Bible teachers today.

In the statements in the beginning of this lesson you will find the condition and teaching of the human churches in all towns today. Also on the right you will find the work as God wants it taught. You can plainly see the changes we are trying to make, yet when I go to some places and beg them to let God make the changes they raise the cry as the people did in Paul's day, "These people who have turned the world upside down have come here also.

Then it will be of interest to examine the religious world today as under man's rule, and see how it would be when turned upside down, or when God's way would prevail.

Man's way tells us there are many churches, it doesn't make any difference to which church you belong so your heart is right, there are good and bad people in all churches, you can be saved in one as well as in another, that each man should be permitted to join the church of his choice. If the man of God endorses these statements the sects will run after him, and he is the only preacher some of my brethren want because he pleases the different churches and they will blow him long and loud in all our papers, telling how the churches like him and how they called in their services to hear our big man preach. They seem to forget that Paul said, "If I please men I am not the servant of Christ (Galatians 1:14). Yet many of my brethren will today turn down a gospel preacher if he preaches the gospel and does not seek to please the sects.

On the other side you hear Paul teaching there is one church, and Jesus teaching, "Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." You go to a town and find the religious world happy, united and working together at peace among themselves and with the devil, because they are teaching that you can be reconciled to God, or saved, outside of all the churches, and that you must be saved outside of all the churches and then join the church of your choice. All that is necessary to turn the religious world upside down and start all the churches working against you is to quote Paul in Ephesians 2:16, where he teaches that we are reconciled in the one body. Such teaching will not only arouse all the sects, but many of my brethren will say, "You are too hard and will drive the sects all away."

In nearly all towns each church has its own way of salvation, and beg men to go its way. But as soon as you quote the statement of the Son of God in John 14:6, where He says, "I am the way," they v ill hollow, "You will turn the world upside down, and teach that all people are going to hell if they don't go your way."

We find different religious bodies, Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterian bodies. Then we read that Paul says in Ephesians 4:4, that there is one body. They will tell you that such teaching is fighting their church and will disturb many good men.

As the body without the spirit is dead then there must be as many spirits as bodies, and each peculiar body must have its own peculiar spirit to vitalize it. A man would turn the world upside down if he told them Paul said there is one spirit (Ephesians 4:4).

Religious people are practicing three baptisms; immersion, sprinkling, and pouring; and often pray for two more, Holy Ghost and fire. It turns them upside down to read Ephesians 4:5 which says there is one baptism.

The religious world is practicing what Paul condemned when he told the Corinthians that if one said, "I am of Paul" and another, "I am of Apollos" they were carnal 1 Corinthians 3:4. He tells them to be carnally minded is death. Yet some people will declare there is nothing in a name, that it makes no difference what name you wear so your heart is right. If you show them that the disciples were called Christians at Antioch, (Acts 11:26), and Paul referred to churches of Christ (Romans 16:16) you will see the religious world going upside down, and you are condemned for serving discord among brethren.

Each peculiar church has its own peculiar faith. A man will believe the Baptist doctrine and let a Baptist preacher baptize him. Such will make him a Baptist. Another man will believe the Methodist doctrine and let a Methodist baptize him. Such makes him a Methodist. When you show them there is only one faith (Ephesians 4:4) that when a man in the days of the apostles accepted that faith and obeyed the gospel it made him a Christian only, and that no man was ever made anything but a Christian in believing and obeying the gospel, you will soon learn that such doctrine will turn the world upside down and that all the churches will not like you.

Each sectarian church has its own peculiar fold with its own made to order pastor or shepherd. Each shepherd will herd his own peculiar fold in the town, and keep them so closely herded that they can not stray into other sectarian pens, nor be sheared by any other shepherd; for each shepherd must have all the wool each sheep produces to keep up his own salary. When you tell them that Jesus taught in John 10:16 there would be one fold and one shepherd, then it is you turn the world upside down and get all the so called pastors on top of you; for if the sheep all go to one fold, one pastor will get all the wool and the other shepherds will have to go out and shear the goats to get their pay.

Jesus, in addition to his teaching that there should be one fold and one shepherd, prayed to His Father that all of His sheep should be one that the world might believe that God had sent Him (John 17:20). Paul besought them by the authority of God to be of the same mind, and to speak the same things, and have no divisions among them (1 Corinthians 1:10).

Yet nothing will arouse the hatred of all the so-called under" shepherds in any town as much as to beg them to come together on the Bible, and be of the same mind and speak the same things. Such Bible teaching will turn the religious denominations upside down.

Jesus teaches in the 7th chapter of Matthew there are two places to build—one on the rock, the other on the sand. We read in Matthew 16:18 that the church of Christ is built on the rock, and in as much as the Bible teaches there is only one church, and this church being built on the rock, it necessarily follows that all human churches must be built on the sand. When you tell them that Jesus said all buildings on the sand should fall, such teaching at once begins to turn the world upside down.

.......In John 15:1 -l 6 Jesus teaches "I am the vine." He also states, that every plant or vine His Father did not plant should be rooted up (Matthew 15:13). Paul teaches the scriptures will furnish the man of God unto all good works, and in as much as the word of God knows nothing of human churches, they necessarily come under the condemnation of God, and will be rooted up. This kind of Bible teaching will turn the entire sectarian world upside. down.

But our final thought is: Paul teaches that if a woman has two living husbands, she shall be called an adulteress (Romans 7). Then he argues that the church is dead to the law that she might be married to Christ, even to Him who is raised from the dead. Not only is this true of the woman, but the man also, if he has two to four living wives, he is an adulterer. Any man sitting on a jury and trying a man who confesses he has four living wives, would convict him of living in open adultery and send him to the pen. Then how is it that all denominational preachers can claim to be guiltless before God, when in any little town on Sunday morning they will get down and pray to the protestant Jesus Christ who they claim is married to five or six women, or have that many churches in that town. Such charges the Son of God as being a polygamist and living in spiritual adultery. Yet this is the true teaching and practice of all human churches, and all denominational preachers and it is getting time that ail men of God would devote more of their time to turning the sectarian world religiously upside down, instead of compromising the truth and preaching on moral subjects exclusively— or something that all will endorse and compliment. Such preaching will gain you endorsements and favor among men, but it will lead no one to God.

The Sadducees and Pharisees taught the lawof Moses more earnestly and more perfectly when Christ and the apostles were here than the sects are teaching the Bible today, and many times the religious people became offended at what the Sonof God said and wanted to stone Him and the apostles. No mention is made in all the New Testament of a single meeting the apostles held and all the sects loved them and called in their meetings. Yet I notice that often my brethren are glad to make such strange and unscriptural reports.

It is getting time that true men of God quit trying to please the religious world, but try to turn it upside down by preaching the gospel of the Son of God.