Unity as Defined by God, Not Us

So the whole goal is that we be Berean. Y'all remember what was said of Bunyan. If they cut him, he would bleed Bible.

That's how we want to be. What I'm wanting you to do is think. So, I'm not here to debate or prove to you tonight about the nature of Scripture and it being our sole authority.

But I trust that that's where we work from. We work from the standpoint that there is an authority in this book and that when it comes to truth, isn't that it? His Word is truth. And so what happens is we are confronted with these questions that come in so often they have to do with ethical matters.

About how to deal with certain things or they're wanting certain things interpreted. And you, men and women, you have at your disposal, boys and girls, what I do, it's Scripture. And so what we're wanting to do is think through how Scripturally would you answer this? And just last Saturday at the men's meeting, I was asking the men, if they have opinions, to have a biblical basis for what they say.

We have our opinions, but what we want is those things guided by Scripture. And so, here's a question. Now remember these questions.

The first thing you have to do is you have to listen for when they actually ask a question. This is practical to all of us. Why? Because we, now that Christ doesn't walk this earth, we're the lights of this world.

And so, we're going to be talking to people all the time. We're to be the bearers of truth, whether it's in our workplace, whether it's out there in the streets, wherever we find ourselves, we are to be light in the midst of the darkness. And so, one of the things you want to do is listen to people.

And people are sending in these questions. I'm taking what James sends to me. I don't know if James gets a whole bunch more and he singles these out because he finds these interesting or what the criteria is for why I get the ones I get.

But I didn't really screen anything out. I took them as they came. Sometimes I get ones that I feel like, I'm not really crazy about answering that, but I figure if James sends them to me, just take them in order, even if they're not overly exciting to me.

But anyways, I like these. And sometimes a question at first glance isn't so exciting to me. And then the more I look at it, the more it becomes that.

But what you want to do is you want to listen for, are they actually asking a question? Because I find a lot of these people that supposedly are asking questions are actually making a whole lot more dogmatic statements. And so oftentimes they're going to tell you all these presuppositions, and what you have to do is filter through them and ask yourself, are they actually true statements? Before you even get to where their question might be. And sometimes even their question is more of a statement than an actual question.

Sometimes it's almost like they've got their minds made up and they're just looking for you to try to rattle them. But anyways, I've got four questions here. Hopefully we can move through these relatively quick.

But okay, what I want you to do is put yourself in the position where somebody's asking you this question. I want you thinking about how you would answer this. This first one is, I think, I may be wrong at this, but I think that this is the first time that I'm actually answering the same question from an individual outside our church a second time.

And he said that he asked this question before, I did an APT on it, and he claims I didn't answer his question. And it has to do with divisiveness and division. And I have a feeling, I remember that actually.

I didn't go back and search it out. He gave the title of it. But I think that answering his question, I probably answered it from 1 Corinthians 11.

And I'll explain more of that in just a second. But here's the question. It comes from 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 10.

So if you get your Bibles, 1 Corinthians 1 verse 10, to see what it is that he's talking about. It says, I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. So, obviously that's a verse that has to do with there being no divisions among you, united, same mind, same judgment.

There's an appeal made by Paul. Now listen to this. His question comes from this verse.

He says, I was saved while being a part of a church of Christ, until their doctrine didn't match up with the Word. I stopped attending. Was looking for another church.

Until I turned to 1 Corinthians 1 verse 10 in my Bible study. And I'm assuming he means his own personal devotions. It was revealed to me.

Do you like that language? It was revealed to me. I mean, I don't make any judgment necessarily, but you know, the antennae go up. It was revealed to me then, since Christianity is divided by thousands of denominations, that that's division that Paul pleads with us not to be in.

And it's not perfectly joined together, the church. Church in Greek is ekklesia, to be called out from the world for God, and symbolically is Christ's body. A body divided will not operate right.

Finally, there's a lust of the flesh called dissension. Christianity... Now get this. Again, he's making statements.

Christianity is man-made and divided. That should really get your antennae wiggling. Would it be dissension to be a part of Christianity since it's divided? Members of Christ, divided by thousands of denominations, is this dissension? Because I was led out of Christianity since I was born again nine years ago.

And God's been speaking to me through Pastor Tim since 2015 with no conviction. But I want to know, is it truly dissension, or simply division from false believers, even though they're in divided, man-made Christianity? And so, God's been speaking to me through Pastor Tim since 2015, but with no conviction. I mean, I'm imagining he's been listening, but there hasn't been any conviction.

I'm not sure why he's listening if he doesn't feel like God's speaking to him through what I say. Maybe I don't understand exactly what he's saying right there. Could he be saying that he doesn't feel conviction about not being a part of Christianity? Perhaps, perhaps.

Or perhaps he just means he has no certain conviction about this that he's asking. But, okay, you get this. What do you do with that? Anything jump out? How would you try to sort this? What's the definition of Christianity? Christianity is labeled as something that's man-made and divided.

And then, obviously, he came across this, and he looks at the thousands of denominations. I mean, he's saying there's thousands of denominations, and he feels like he's had to separate himself. Now, he feels like he was saved, born again nine years ago, but apparently, he was saved in a church of Christ, but since coming across this verse, apparently he's been separated from Christianity or from a church ever since.

And so, what do you think? Do you see any flaws in his thinking? Now, you know, I think that last time I dealt with this, I went to 1 Corinthians 11. Does anything jump out at you from 1 Corinthians 11 that might have to do with division? Listen to this. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 17, And the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better, but for the worse.

For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part. Now, here's what I believe I dealt with last time when he asked this question. For there must be factions among you, in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.

Have you ever come across that verse before? Have you ever thought about that verse before? What that means? What does that mean? Listen to it again. There must be... He says, this is Paul. I hear there are divisions among you, Corinthians, and I believe it in part.

There's a footnote. I believe a certain report. I don't think what he's saying there is that he believes part of it, but he believes the rest of it is a lie.

That part of it is believable and part of it isn't. I don't think that's his intention. I think what he's saying is, I believe there's reality to this.

I believe that part of the report, and that would seem to jive with what's said down there. He talked about the fact that Chloe's people came to him. He was over in Ephesus, and they're telling him about the problems that existed over at Corinth.

Now, here's the thing. He says, I heard this report. To some degree, he's recognizing that there's legitimacy to this report.

And then he says, not just stop it. He says there needs to be division. What do you think of that? Why does there need to be division? Why does there need to be faction? Yeah, and I think this is what I dealt with him last time.

Now, here's the thing. Is he right in saying there's a whole bunch of denominations out there? That's absolutely right. Now, here's the thing.

Brethren, when we think about unity, you know what's interesting? When you look up the Greek word for unity, you have this idea. There's kind of two components to it. On the one hand, it is oneness.

There is a singularity. There is a oneness. We are of one body.

Sometimes we take unity to mean harmony. And there's a difference there. Now, listen.

What I want to nail down right here at the beginning is that God's people are unified. Now, catch what I'm saying. Let me take you to a verse.

Go to Ephesians 4. There's two places that I would go to where the Scripture talks about unity. One is the well-known intercessory, John 17. But Ephesians 4. Brethren, listen.

4.1. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love. Now, notice this. Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit.

Now, that's interesting. It doesn't say we create the unity. It doesn't say we start the unity.

It's not calling us to do anything than to maintain what is already a reality. And notice what He does. He shows us objectively, outside of ourselves, that among God's people there is a unity.

You see that in verse 4? There is one body. Now, brethren, one body. Christ is the head of that body.

If you are here, even if our fellowship, if our harmony, may be a bit disrupted right now, the reality is that if you are a genuine Christian and I am a genuine Christian and there is one body, you see the oneness that exists. It already exists. We don't cancel that.

We don't deny that. We don't undo that. We can't make that be a truth at one time and then be an untruth.

The reality is that there is one body, despite how we treat one another, if we are genuine, there is one Spirit. And if you're saved, you've got that Spirit. I've got that Spirit.

Even if there's some tension between us right now, there is a unity that exists. Just as you were called to the one hope, your hope is the same as my hope. What hope is that? That Christ has paid it all.

You see, there is a unity that exists. One Lord. One faith.

There's one faith. Listen, if we're genuine, yes, we can have differences on minor things, but when it comes to the faith, when it comes to the Gospel, you believe that, I believe that. There is a unity here.

There's one God and Father of all who is over all, through all, in all. So we're not called to create this. We're called to maintain it.

Now listen to Jesus praying. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in Me, and I in you, that they also may be in Us. Now did you catch that? I would ask you this.

Do you believe that Jesus' prayers are always heard? Listen, Jesus' intercession is effectual. God gives Him what He asked for. He's heard by the Father.

What He asked for is granted. And what is it? That they may be in Us. You know what? No matter how you treat Me or how I treat you, the truth is if you're a genuine Christian, you are in the Father and you are in the Son.

That can't be undone. Keep going here. So that the world may believe that You have sent Me.

The glory that You have given Me I have given to them that they may be one even as We are one. I in them, you in Me, that they may become perfectly one so the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me. So, listen, what you need to recognize is this.

We are commanded to maintain something. We are commanded to keep that which God has already made. When we speak of unity, we're talking about a state of oneness and we are part of one body.

And you see the thing is, you as a genuine believer are a member of that body. I am a member of that body. And the thing is, we are joined.

There is a unity in that sense that you can't undo. But here's the thing, sometimes we take unity to mean the harmony. I'm just wanting you to see the difference.

There is an objective reality about our unity that no matter how we treat each other we can't undo. But obviously Paul sees that there's something we have to do to seek to maintain that reality. We just want to make that distinction between the oneness aspect of this and the harmony aspect or the unity and the fellowship because the reality is I cannot divide what God has put together.

If we're in the same body, we're in the same body. But you know what? We can be out of fellowship with one another. And that is where we have a very practical responsibility in the midst of all this.

There can be broken fellowship. That harmony can be lost. The unity we have to do with is a unity that God has created, Christ prayed for.

There is a oneness in all this by virtue of that union that each one of us has with Christ. And it can't be undone. But here's the thing.

Here's the thing. This guy looks and he sees thousands of denominations and he says, division. Let me ask you this.

There is a sense in which division is necessary. Even within the church, Paul saw a necessity for division. What was the necessity that it separates between who and who? Not between two genuine Christians.

You know what? If you think about Jesus, did Jesus come to divide? He says so. Who did He come to divide? It's the same truth that Paul is putting out here. There's a necessity for factions because it delineates between the true and the false.

And the truth is, Jesus said, look, I did not come to bring peace. Not in the bigger picture. Yes, within the church, among the genuine, yes.

But the reality here is that He brought a sword to divide with. And here's what we need to be careful with. That we automatically assume that because we're in a local church over here, and somebody's in a local church over there, and even if they're under a different denomination, what in the world makes you think that we're necessarily at odds with each other? Or that we're out of unity with the folks over there? You see, it's like He's automatically assuming that because you have all these different denominations, that the true people of God are somehow out of fellowship.

Now, we could be, and we shouldn't be. But the thing is, you don't want to assume that. Look, there is a need for local churches.

I mean, you know what? We even recognize a benefit of grace groups. In fact, there was talk at different times as to whether GCC should actually be smaller. But you know what? That doesn't necessarily mean that there's division.

Because we look and we recognize that hey, they met in smaller groups back in the New Testament. That doesn't mean that we're out of fellowship or out of unity in the harmony sense with the other church. Even if they've got a different denominational name.

But the ecumenical mindset is certainly not one that's biblical. Jesus never calls us to hold hands and be with unity with everybody that's out there. Folks, we are never called to try to create unity where God has not made unity.

And that has to do with... I mean, we don't want to try to unite what God has divided. False doctrine. You know what? Right in this very area where I was reading in Ephesians 4. You know, you get down and it talks about no longer being immature, no longer being like children blown about by every wind of doctrine.

Folks, the reality in Scripture is not that we're supposed to hold hands with anybody and everybody no matter what they believe. We're never told that. In fact, we're told that there are certain people that we're very specifically supposed to divide with and get them out of our church and not have fellowship with.

And a lot of times that has to do with bad doctrine. Brethren, remember what it says there? One faith. There is one faith.

Now, look, we have something like Romans 14. Can we differ on what we ought to be eating? Can we differ on the observance? Can we have differences as to what we think about the Sabbath day or the observation of certain... Yes, we can differ on those things. But brethren, when there's one faith, it's not talking about these side matters.

It's talking about the heart of the Gospel. What is the glory of Christ in the midst of this Gospel? The fact that He paid it all. The fact that I'm saved not by my own works.

I'm saved by Him, by His life, by His righteousness, by His pouring out of His blood. Brethren, there are areas that we can't hold hands with other people. And look, we need other churches.

He's kind of got this fixation with denominations. Let me tell you something. I read Sam Waldron's Baptist Roots in America.

Anybody ever seen that book? I read that years ago. And you know one of the things that jumped out at me? He said that during the first Great Awakening, every major denomination in this country split. Do you know why? The living.

You know what happened in that Great Awakening? All sorts of people were saved. And they couldn't stay in the dead churches that they were in. And so what happened was the living separated from the dead.

But you see, just because the living Baptist separated from the dead Baptist, and the living Presbyterian separated, you know, I have listened to Wurmbrand give his testimony. And I've read. Anybody familiar with Wurmbrand? You hear him talk? You know what? They had fellowship in the prison.

I'll guarantee you this, if you were under persecution and you were in prison and you found a Pentecostal, you found a Charismatic, even if you found a Catholic, and you could tell their hope was Christ, you know what? There's going to be an affinity there. You're going to be drawn to them. And you can have a guy that has the same tag as you.

He's a Calvinistic, Reformed, Baptistic type. And he's cold and he's dead. And you feel no fellowship with him.

And yet the Charismatic guy over here, you ever get around people and you recognize there's a kindred spirit? You ever notice that? It doesn't matter what title they have. I've often told the story where I was in a situation over... Paul Washer told me, he told me something about Amsterdam. And he told me, Brother, no matter what happens, never leave the airport in Amsterdam if you're by yourself.

And when he told me that, he had asked me to go to Romania and I thought, well, no problem. I'm going to be with a whole team of guys. And you know what? My flight got canceled.

And I ended up in Amsterdam with a nine hour layover. And I'm telling you, something devilish happened. There was such a temptation to leave that airport.

And I can remember, I went over and I sat down in a little cafe, probably had a coffee, and I saw this girl over on the other side and she had an open Bible. And I jumped over there and she was from Africa. I forget the denomination.

We talked about the Lord. And there was such a kindred spirit. Brother, you know what we're talking about in unity? Not uniformity.

It doesn't mean we're all the same. It doesn't mean we all think exactly alike and we've all got the same gifts and we all dress just the same in your nice denim skirts and you've got your hair done all exactly. That isn't the idea.

We need variety. We need diversity in the church. But brethren, I would say this, to actually take a position like this guy has taken to cut himself off from Christianity, he's doing the very thing he's condemning all the denominations for.

He's isolating himself from genuine Christians. Brethren, we need other members of the body. We desperately... And brethren, I'll tell you this, it is wickedness to refuse to fellowship with other members of Christ's body.

As much as you do it to one of the least of these little ones, you do it unto Him. If you separate from other people because of denomination... Look, I recognize that when it comes down to the Lord's Supper and how we're going to treat a Presbyterian, especially if you recognize they're a genuine brother. One of our missionaries just contacted me with that question just recently.

How do we handle that? And I can remember hearing Piper when we were starting Grace and I was trying to flesh these kinds of things out. I remember him dealing with that. And he was saying, guys of my own denomination, I don't have near the fellowship with as I do some of these Presbyterian brothers who are not Baptists.

And brother, we don't want to do because of denomination or because of local church membership. And I'll tell you this, you can be in a local church where you feel superior to people in other churches. And you know what? You can feel like people in other churches are somehow inferior to us.

Brethren, be careful. The thing is we don't want to separate over minor doctrinal differences. There's no member of the body of Christ which, I mean, what are we going to say? You know how Paul talks.

I can't say to the elbow or to the foot or whatever. Brethren, there's no true member of the body of Christ that you and I are not in need of. And we don't want to separate over race or over language or over whatever it is.

And so often, brethren, we get this superiority complex. Somehow, you know, our church is better. Our church is superior.

Our church is this. Brethren, the measure to which a person cuts himself off from other Christians is, I mean, he's just going to hurt himself. We need that.

And so, yes, it's true, we can have differences. We can have differences. This guy says that he was saved in the church of Christ.

Now listen, brethren, I'm going to separate from the church of Christ. I don't believe it's works-based. They believe you've got to be baptized in order to be saved.

The thief on the cross speaks contrary to that. And this is no small thing, because basically what they're saying is this work has to be performed for you to be saved. And so, yes, two need to be agreed if they're going to walk together, and I can't be agreed in that.

But brethren, we know Scripture says this, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? I mean, the truth is we're not supposed to be unified with some. Division in itself is not evil.

It's necessary. That's what Paul says. That's what Jesus says.

Brethren, the truth is there was nobody more divisive than Jesus. He tended to polarize people. And if we're going to speak the truth, but I'll tell you, brethren, we need to be very careful that we're not condemning those in other places just because they have a little bit different denominational flavor.

Jesus came to divide, but we don't want to divide with regards to things that are unnecessary to divide over. Brethren, we need to fight schism. We need to fight schism.

It's almost like sometimes we feel like well, we need to fight schism and divisiveness and disunity within our own church. But brethren, there's Christ's head. There's one body.

And what we want to do is be very careful that we're not somehow looking down at others. You know, there can be this competitive thing with other churches in our same city. It's like especially if some of our people left our church and they went over there.

And brethren, you don't want to get to the place where oh, if they left our church, they must be inferior somewhere, some way or another. Or they must be lost. They're not healthy.

We want to be careful. But within the church, what is it that typically causes schism? What is it that causes division? You know what it typically is? It's when you get people within the church that kind of have this independent spirit. They're not most concerned about the health of the church.

Do you remember that Paul talked about as he was complimenting Timothy, but he talked about people within the church that they're all about their own thing and not the things of Christ. And you get somebody in the church and they see themselves as superior, ignoring the welfare of the body. It's unity.

They're self-centered, self-seeking, seeking their own things, own ambitions kind of drive the whole thing. Not the glory of Christ. Not the well-being of the church.

And individuals like this, they'll try to convince themselves it's the Lord's will that they do what they do. And oftentimes it's an attack on leadership. It's finding faults, the little things, the errors, the little faults and little errors of the human leaders in the church.

Usually, divisiveness within the church is an attack on the leadership. Almost always. And such individuals, you know what they do? They seek out the other malcontents.

Brethren, all you have to do is look at the Ephesians 4 passage. The remedy to all of it is right there in Ephesians. In the very book where you've got one body and you've got one spirit and you've got one Lord, one faith, one baptism, in the midst of all of this, what does it say? It says, verse 1, "...walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called with all humility and gentleness." There it is.

The schismatic is the proud guy. You can't get away from that. And it says we're to forbear with one another.

And see, the thing is, what does love do? Love suffers long. There may be suffering, but it's willing to suffer long. Love suffers.

And so, you see that eager to maintain, look at verse 3, "...eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Peace. Strife divides, but peace binds us together. Anyway, that's just some quick thoughts on this whole thing.

Brethren, we know that there are denominations. And you know what we need to be careful about is where do denominations usually come from? Well, a lot of times they come from life emerging from the death. Even if you think about, where did Methodism come from at first? Well, it came out of Anglicanism.

And what was that? Well, again, that was the fruit of the First Great Awakening. And so, if you really look at what it is that causes these divisions, a lot of times it's that very thing. It's that separation.

We recognize there's different convictions about the mode of baptism. And I think that's been something that I've wrestled with. But you know what? You can sit with a Presbyterian brother and you can have fellowship.

I guess if we're going to let love win the day, I mean, brethren, you know if somebody's got a kindred spirit and they've got a love for the Lord Jesus Christ and their only hope is in what Christ has done, I mean, brethren, what we don't want to do is divide over minors. We major on the minors. And that's where you find so often just a divisive spirit is the people who just hammer these minor things.

But anyway, any other thoughts on that? This time, divisiveness. What do you say to that guy? What's that? He said I didn't. Well, I hope so.

But I would tell him this. Get in a church and start being unified. Start having harmony with the brethren.

Stop doing what you're condemning in others. That's what I would say to him.