When the merger between Edina Baptist Church
and Emmanuel Community Church was considered
in the winter of 1981, a new name identifying
the two of them together was a part of the agreement
of the congregations. Initially, the name Christ
Church was suggested. It was discovered that
that was a name already used by a congregation,
at least in a form, here in the Twin Cities area.
And so we began to search then for an appropriate
name. I can well remember the elders meeting
that we had when we were all gathered around
the table and we went over 70 -some suggestions
for the name from the sublime to the ridiculous.
And after probably an hour and a half or two
hours of considering most of the suggestions,
we finally arrived at the name Grace Church and
presented that to the congregation and it was,
with enthusiasm, approved. We felt that Grace
Church is a name that is warm, it is a simple
name, and is a name that communicates the essence
of the message that we have to preach, and that
is the message of the grace of God as revealed
in His Son Jesus Christ. I think if the Jerusalem
church had selected a name, if that had been
the custom in that day, the grace might well
have been one of their high considerations. It
would have been appropriate to call it grace
church in Jerusalem because of the abundant grace.
God manifested there. Let's begin reading in
verse 32. Follow along in your Bible. For there
was not a needy person among them, for all who
were owners of land or houses would sell them,
and bring the proceeds of the sales, and lay
them at the apostles' feet, and they would be
distributed to each, as any had need. And Joseph,
a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called
Barnabas by the apostles, which translated means
son of encouragement, and who owned a tract of
land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid
it, at the Apostle's feet. This particular text
in the book of Acts brings us to the high -water
mark of the Jerusalem Church. From this point
on, there were some difficult things that occurred.
But we have before us today an amazing text because
it tells of the things that happened in that
church because of the abundant grace which they
experienced. Not all of these things are intended
to provide a model to be followed throughout
this age. After all, as we look in chapter 4
of Acts, we are looking at a transitional period
in the book. We are looking at a time when the
foundation is being laid for the church to be
revealed. So not everything in these chapters
of Acts should be patterned or followed today
in our churches. However, we can learn a great
deal by observing what happened in those early
days in the Church. The Church in Jerusalem experienced
abundant grace. God's favor unmerited yet wondrously
bestowed upon them. Notice with me the evidences
of God's abundant grace. in the Jerusalem church.
The first one is the phenomenal unity which was
present in that church. You say, well, Pastor,
we have mentioned unity often as we have come
through these chapters of Acts. Why is that?
Because the text itself mentions it so frequently.
We have talked about unity no more than the text
itself talks about it. And consider what an amazing
thing this was, that they should have such unity
as described in the first sentence in verse 32.
For after all, in the matter of a few weeks,
they had grown from only 120 people to well over
5 ,000. There were 5 ,000 men, and in addition
to that, women and undoubtedly children. And
in those few weeks of explosive growth, they
yet had an amazing, phenomenal unity in their
assembly. What is the origin of such oneness?
Where does it come from? How do you explain that?
There is only one answer to it. This unity comes
from God Himself. It is a reflection of the unity
of the Godhead, of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, who are three and yet one. in their
essence. This unity is in the first place an
answer to the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Come back with me to John chapter 17 and refresh
your memory with what he requested of the Father
in his high priestly prayer as found in John
chapter 17. Look at verse 11. He says, I am no
more in the world. Now of course he was physically
and literally at that moment in the world. But
as he prays, he is praying as though he has already
passed the work of Calvary which was to come
the next day. He is praying as he would pray
as the great high priest back in the presence
of the Father after his resurrection and ascension.
He says, yet they themselves, his disciples,
are in the world and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep them in thy name. the name which thou hast
given me, that they may be one even as we are."
Then verse 21, that they may all be one even
as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that
they also may be in us, that the world may believe
that thou didst send me. Then again in verse
23, I in them, thou in me, that they may be perfected
in unity. That the world may know that thou didst
send me, and thou didst love them, and didst
love them even as thou didst love me. And so
the Lord Jesus three times prays that his followers
may be one. Now it's utterly ridiculous to think
that he was praying for denominational unity.
For after all, there were no denominations in
that day. That is the creation of man and probably
not a very good one either. What is Jesus praying
for is he prays that they may be one. He is praying
that they may know that we may know the same
kind of oneness, the same unity as he and the
Father knew. As I am in you, as you are in me,
so that they may be one in us is what Jesus prays
for. An amazing thing. And I believe that this
prayer was fulfilled initially at Pentecost when
the Holy Spirit came and baptized the believers.
bringing them into one body, one corporate group,
no longer 120 separate disciples, but essentially
at that point one church, one body. And that
has continued on to this day for every time a
person trusts the Lord Jesus Christ, he is brought
into that essential oneness with the rest of
the church since the day of Pentecost, and a
oneness as well with the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus'
prayer has been answered in that spiritual sense.
But there is a sense in which as a congregation,
a local body of people, we too need to reflect
this unity, this oneness in our fellowship. The
Jerusalem church certainly did. We know also
that unity is the fruit of the work of the Holy
Spirit. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Once again,
these are verses that most of you probably have
read. But notice what it says that we are to
do in verse 3. He says, Be diligent to preserve
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
He calls unity here of the Spirit, indicating
to us once again that it is the Holy Spirit who
produces the unity. We are then responsible to
keep it and to maintain it. 1 Corinthians 12
.1 says, For by one Spirit, were you all baptized
into one body, unity is the fruit of the Holy
Spirit's work. It is what he does. And that unity
that belongs to us spiritually is to be expressed
outwardly in our fellowship. Oneness is created
when all of us are in fact yielding to Christ's
Lordship so that our wills, our ideas, our desires,
our goals are all bent in that same direction.
That is the only way that unity can be practically
experienced in a church. When we all yield to
the Lordship of Jesus Christ and follow Him,
then we are bent in the same direction. When
I think of this, I think of Jesus being like
a magnet and we the iron filings. For as the
magnet is drawn through the filings, they are
attracted to that magnet and all flow in the
same direction. And so it is when we yield to
the lordship of Jesus Christ, we all flow together.
There is a oneness, a unity that is phenomenal
and marvelous. It has to be a supernatural unity.
It is holiness which produces unity, holiness
of life. We have enjoyed in the four years that
we have been together, I think, an unusual unity.
Not that there haven't been times when there
have been questions that have resulted in people
being factious, but by and large our congregation
has known an amazing degree of unity. To the
degree that we have enjoyed that, let us be careful
to understand that it's because God has produced
it by His grace in our midst and because we have
been, to some degree, intent on preserving and
keeping that unity which He has produced. Well,
if Jesus prayed for it and if the Holy Spirit
produces it, what is it then that creates division
in the Lord's Church? It certainly is not the
work of God. when there is division and a factious
spirit. What is it that destroys oneness in a
church? There is one very simple answer to that.
If being holy is that which creates unity, if
following the Lordship of Jesus Christ is that
which allows unity to be maintained, then it
is the opposite of that which creates division.
To put it simply, it is sin. which creates division.
Go back to James chapter 4 and look at verses
1 and 2. James makes it very clear to us what
the source of divisions in the church fellowship
actually is. He says, what is the source of quarrels
and conflicts among you? Is not the source your
pleasures that wage war in your members. He says,
your desires, your own selfish ambitions, your
lusts, what pleases you, he says, is that not
the source? You lust and you do not have, so
you commit murder. And if not literal murder,
we commit murder in an analogous sense. by slaying
people's reputations, by politicking, by manipulating,
by maneuvering. He says you commit murder because
you desire and do not have, and you are envious
and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
James could not be more direct and he could not
be more clear that divisions in a church are
created by that kind of sinful conduct. It comes
from within ourselves. It comes from within ourselves,
from that part of us that is carnal, or what
the apostle Paul calls the flesh. Now, what is
the flesh? Is that our body of flesh? No. That
is not the meaning in the sense that he uses
it in Galatians chapter 5, and that's the next
text I'd like you to look at. The flesh is that
part of us which still reflects the old man that
we were before we were saved. The flesh is the
old habits, the patterns of activity which characterized
the old man. We will have the flesh with us to
some degree. until the day that we see the Lord
Jesus Christ and we are then made entirely like
him. The flesh and the spirit are at war within
us. The one seeks to suppress the other and to
dominate the life. There is no compromise between
the flesh and the spirit in our lives. That is
the spirit that produces unity in a church, but
it is the flesh which produces factions. Notice
what he says in verse 19, the deeds of the flesh
are evident. Well, what are they then? Immorality,
impurity, sensuality, and so it covers sexual
sins. But they go on. Idolatry, sorcery, those
are basically religious kinds of sins. And then
he talks about social sins. enmities, strife,
jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, notice,
dissensions, factions. Then he goes on to say,
envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like
these, of which I have forewarned you, just as
I have forewarned you, that those who practice
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of
God." That is, those whose lives are characterized
by these things, he says, give evidence of the
fact that they are still in the flesh and are
not in the Spirit. His warning, though, is that
even though we may be in the Spirit in the sense
that we are saved, it is possible that we can
revert to go back to the expressions of the flesh
in our lives in any of these areas. Any one of
us, though we may be genuinely saved and sealed
by the Spirit of God, are capable of expressing
any one of these works of the flesh in our lives.
Our subject is that of unity and the destruction
of it, disunity. And he says that disunity or
factions or dissensions are produced by the old
habits, the patterns of activity, which characterize
the old man, that is, the flesh. The more fleshly
individuals that there are in a fellowship of
God's people, the more it will be tended to be
wracked with division and with strife. Because
those fleshly people give evidence of the works
of the flesh in their lives, and it creates that
very sad kind of characteristic of the church
where it is wracked with division. I think most
of us have been experienced enough in churches
to know the kind of thing that I'm talking about.
And that is the kind of thing that we never want
to see develop in Grace Church Roseville. It
happens so easily in a church. I can remember
well in one church that I pastored, we were building
a school. Many decisions had to be made in the
course of that construction, including the kind
of heating that we were going to have. That might
not seem like a big decision. Indeed, we did
not think it necessarily was, although it did
involve a lot of money. But we didn't think it
should have created a problem, but it did. Do
you know why? because there was one individual
in our church who sold oil for a living. And
when he saw that big building going up of 100
,000 square feet, he knew that it would take
a lot of oil. And he was the distributor for
that area. And he began to politic and lobby
in the church that the decision might be made
to heat the school building with oil rather than
with the gas or electricity. And it created a
division and a strife within our church. We were
able to handle that before it got very big, and
that's one of the secrets. When that kind of
thing begins to develop, it's nipped in the bud.
It has to be handled delicately, but swiftly
and with force. And we did. And as a result of
that, sad to say, he and his wife ended up leaving
the church. But that was better than for them
to continue sowing seeds of strife and discord
within the fellowship. I'm thinking of a mission
field where a similar thing happened. It wasn't
the same situation. But the mission made certain
decisions on that mission field. there was a
couple on that field that disagreed radically
with the policy that had been made by the leadership
of the mission. Now we often think of missionaries
as being above this kind of thing, but I think
missionaries would be the first to admit that
they are prone to the same fleshly concerns that
any of us can be. And that couple began then
to create division and to talk behind the backs
of the field council and to create strife. on
the field so that the Spirit of God was quenched.
And though they were approached a number of times
regarding ceasing what they were doing, ultimately
that couple had to be recalled to the United
States and summarily dismissed from the mission
because of their factious kind of activity. But
what had happened? Well, the couple had simply
allowed the flesh to dominate in their lives
because they disagreed with a decision that was
made and they began to lobby and to politic and
to manipulate and the result was very sad indeed
for them as well as a real danger to the work
of God on that foreign field. I think of a staff
member in a church on the west coast who had
some problems getting along with people. And
a number of issues were involved which are not
worth going into. But sadly, ultimately the elder
board had to remove the staff member in order
to stop the strife that he was creating within
the church. How does this kind of thing begin?
It usually begins with one person or a few. And
then others begin to catch it. It's almost like
an infection. that occurs within the body. And
when that happens, it has to be dealt with quickly,
lest the whole body become ill. A dear friend
of mine pastors in a church in another state,
a man in this church became a deotrophes a couple
of years ago. That particular man had had a real
important part in founding the church. The church
is only a little bit older than our own. But
he had fallen out of grace in some way with the
pastor and turned against him and began to do
everything that he could to undermine the pastor's
ministry. He gathered around him a little clique,
a little group of people who took his side in
the issues. This whole thing has been boiling
and bubbling now for about a year. Letters have
been written to the congregation. On the very
same night that we had our annual meeting, they
had an annual meeting as well. I prayed for them
earnestly that night. Certain motions were brought
before the congregation which would have dealt
with the issue properly. And yet, although there
was just a minority of people who followed that
factious person, There were enough votes there,
17 to be exact, that nothing could be passed
that evening to bring a resolution to the problem.
I talked to the pastor two days later, and he
said, Galen, what shall I do? I said, you only
have one choice, really. If there are not enough
people in your congregation who trust you, then
you're going to have to look for another place
to go. And I imagine he's probably going to do
that. Very sad. Well, how did that happen? How
did they go from the unity that they enjoyed
at the beginning a few years ago to the point
now that the church is completely divided and
paralyzed in its ministry? It happened because
of one individual who became miffed about something
and then gathered around him a little click,
and the result is a church that is on its way
to destruction. You say, well, that only happens
today, doesn't it? I'm sorry to say it does not
only happen today, it's happened through the
centuries of the church. Turn back to Philippians
with me and look at what the Apostle Paul wrote
to those dear people. The Philippians who are
among the best of the congregations that Paul
founded in his ministry. He writes to them in
the first chapter and he says, Conduct yourselves
in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so
that whether I come and see you or remain absent,
I may hear of you that you are standing firm.
Notice how they're to stand firm. In one spirit,
with one mind, striving together for the faith
of the gospel. Now why would the Apostle Paul
say this? Why would he exhort them? to be this
way. Well, the implication is that at that moment
there was a danger they might not be that way
when he would come to see them. And so he goes
on in chapter 2. He says, if there's encouragement
in Christ, if consolation of love, fellowship
with the Spirit, affection and compassion, he
says, then make my joy complete by being of the
same mind. maintaining the same spirit, united
in purpose, intent, or united in spirit, intent
on one purpose. Why would he write those words?
Because there was the danger of a division within
the Philippian church. And so he comes in chapter
4 and he gets very, very specific. He says, I
urge you, Odea, verse 2, and I urge Syntyche
to live in harmony in the Lord. Literally, what
he says is, I urge Euodia and Syntyche to be
of one mind in the Lord. That's what he says.
Who were these two people? Well, he says, they
are women who shared in his struggle, verse 3,
in the cause of the gospel. They helped him.
They shared with Paul in the ministry. But now
there is some unnamed issue that has caused these
two women to turn upon each other. And the Apostle
Paul knows what will happen if that's allowed
to continue, that it will create within the Philippian
church division which will destroy them. And
so he exhorts and urges them. He names them in
the eternal word of God, if you can imagine that.
How would you like to have been? and know that
your name is going to be mentioned in such a
context throughout the eternity to come. He says,
I urge these two women to live in harmony, to
be of the same mind together. How subtle the
enemy is in creating division in a church. He
uses innuendos and suggestions. He takes partial
knowledge of an event. And then creates an atmosphere
of suspicion and distrust. Or he instills hatred,
resentment, bitterness, or rebellion in hearts.
He creates the spirit of skepticism or cynicism.
And I want you to know that all of that, all
of that is not of God. And it doesn't take long
to narrow down where it does come from. In Genesis
chapter 3, we have the first cynical statement
to be found in the history of the world. And
it came from the lips of the serpent, from Satan,
when he said, Hath God said? A note of cynicism,
skepticism. He bred it into the human heart,
and from this day until this day, the same kind
of sinful skepticism and cynicism is within every
human breast and can be. Well, that's how divisiveness
gets started. It destroys oneness. It destroys
the unity of the Church. And we're going to see
in a few weeks that it happened in the Jerusalem
Church. Here they're at a high watermark when
they're all of one mind and one spirit and sharing
things together. And very shortly, division is
going to raise its ugly head and threaten the
Church. And we'll see at that point how they
handled it. But how do you deal with a divisive
kind of spirit or with a divisive person? Well
apparently this was so much of a problem in the
early church that the Apostle Paul is very clear
about it and we as a church need to be instructed
as to what to do. Turn over to Titus chapter
3. In verses 10 and 11, we are told exactly what
we, as a congregation, are to do in light of
a divisive person. It says, reject a factious
man. The King James says heretic, and we often
think of a heretic as a false teacher. But in
the New Testament language, it does not mean
a false teacher. It means a person who draws
a party after himself. It is one who says, here
is my issue, on whose side are you anyway? It
may be a theological issue. It may be an issue
of action within the church. But it's a person
who says, I am dividing up sides. Are you on
my side or are you on their side? Reject the
factious man after a first and second warning.
In other words, you're to give a warning or two
to such a person. But then he is to be rejected,
knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning,
being self -condemned. Not just condemned to
the congregation of the Lord, but he says being
self -condemned, self -condemned. Dr. W .A. Criswell
is the illustrious pastor of the First Baptist
Church in Dallas. Maybe some of you have heard
him preach. He is one of the true orators of
our day in the Southern sense. He is probably
one of my very favorite preachers. He piles adjectives
and adverbs up to the heights of mountains as
he preaches and is so flowery that you sit there
and just absorb it. It's a wonderful experience
to hear him preach. I was at a pastor's conference
there a number of years ago now and he told about
what happened when he first became the pastor
at First Baptist back in 1944, 45, something
like that. There was a man who was very powerful
in the church, and he happened to be the chairman
of the board of deacons, a judge in the city
of Dallas, very wealthy and quite well -known.
And some of the things that young Criswell brought
into the church were revolutionary. The church
had been pastored for a number of years by the
far -famed George Truitt. In fact, he had pastored
it for almost 50 years, since late in the 1800s,
and then went to be with Christ in 1943 or four,
something like that. and they called Chriswell.
But in the latter years of Truett's ministry
there, things got stale, and things began to
go downhill. So when Chriswell came in, God brought
him in to do a new work, and the church is still
today experiencing revival. They're running seven,
eight thousand people, and in fact just within
the last year have grown by two thousand people
in a marvelous work of the Spirit of God under
Dr. Chriswell's ministry. But this man did not
like some of the innovations that this whippersnapper
from out there in the plains of Texas brought
to the city of Dallas. And he summoned him to
his office in downtown Dallas and explained to
him what he didn't like and said it had to change.
And Dr. Criswell is not the kind of a person
who would say, yes, sir, and leave the office.
He stood his ground. against the judge and said,
sir, I am the pastor of the church. God has called
me here, and this and this and this are the ways
that we're going to do it. Fortunately, the judge
backed down. I think he knew he had met his match.
Later on, and in the conference, Criswell made
this statement. He said, I knew that in doing
that, I was putting my ministry here in jeopardy.
But he said, I'd rather be swallowed by a whale.
than to be nibbled to death by guppies. And I
concur entirely with what he said. Why does the
Lord allow those kinds of things? After all,
if he wants unity in the church, why doesn't
he just block division? Why doesn't he supernaturally
strike dead any of us who would dare divide his
church? The reason is that if he did that, the
churches would be much less populated, because
there are times when all of us are tempted to
do things like that, because we all have that
carnal, fleshly part of us. Why does the Lord
allow these things? Turn over to 1 Corinthians
11, where again the Apostle Paul speaks to the
Corinthian church. And remember, they had a few
problems along these lines. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 11, verses 18 and 19, he says, in the
first place when you come together, that is for
the Lord's Supper as a church, I hear that divisions
exist among you and I, in part, believe it. I
think Paul does a wise thing here. He says, I'm
hearing these things and I'm believing part of
it. He gives us a wise example to believe only
part of what we hear. But part of it was enough
for Paul. He goes on to say, for there must also
be factions among you. Now notice he says there
must be factions among you. Why? In order that
those who are approved may have become evident
among you. In other words, he says that from
time to time there will be a sifting process
and that this will take place through factions.
in a church. So as much as we don't like them,
as much as they make us feel uncomfortable, we
must recognize that when they do come, that they
are not here by accident, that God has allowed
that to take place, and that they only serve
actually to accomplish His purpose, to show those
who are approved and to sift out those who are
not. But I think the greater question that we
need to talk about is we talk about the phenomenal
unity of the early church. is the preservation
of it. We've talked about the origin of it. That's
God Himself, the prayer of Jesus, the work of
the Holy Spirit. We have spent some time talking
about the destruction of oneness, but let's talk
about the preservation of it. A spiritual congregation,
or maybe a better way to say it, a congregation
composed of spiritual people, mainly, will repel
divisive factions. It will reflect arrows of
disunity and not allow itself to become ripped
apart by the enemy's scheme. You say, well, I
want to be that kind of person. How can I be
a preserver of peace and oneness within the Lord's
work, His church? A couple of answers to that.
Number one, be holy yourself. Give no place to
the devil. Do not allow him so much as a toehold
in your life in this area. Purpose before God
to be a unifier and not allow yourself even inadvertently
to be sucked into becoming a divider. Be holy
yourself. It is holiness which provides unity
in the church. Then secondly, how do you handle
a person who wants to become critical and divisive?
Well, if you want to be a preserver of the oneness
of the church, let me tell you how to handle
that. It's not easy to handle it because sometimes
friendships are involved and at times can even
be put on the line. But how do you handle If
you want to be a peacemaker, how do you handle
someone who comes and wants to gripe and criticize
and divide? The answer is, in the first place,
refuse to participate even by listening to it.
I heard about a conversation that took place
a number of years ago on a telephone line. One
person called another and said, have you heard
about so -and -so at the church? And the individual
said, You know there's enough talk over the telephone
now. Let's not you and me be a part of it anymore.
I Thought what a great answer that is what a
great answer You say well, I've already done
that I've already listened on the telephone.
I've already done the talking then the thing
to do is to go back to each person that you've
talked to or listened to to ask forgiveness and
Exhort that person to go to the right person
and to stop talking You say, but that's humiliating
to do that. Yes, it is. It is humiliating. It's
embarrassing. And that's part of the built -in
price of making things right, of restitution,
so that we are reminded by the Spirit of God
not to do that anymore. That's why it's commanded
of us. It is important after we have dealt with
the initial contact to direct the individual
to go to the right person who needs to hear the
concern. And I would say even to offer to go
with him to make sure he does, because too frequently
when you say to an individual, well, you need
to go to so -and -so about it, they never go.
They just go to another person and continue the
talking. So the best thing to do if you really
want to be a unifier in a church is to say, look,
I don't really want to talk about that. What
you need to do is to go see so -and -so. And
I'm going to go with you. When can we do it?
If that approach is taken, then we will effectively
preserve the unity and the peace within God's
church. You say, well, who do you go to? Well,
you may need to go to the person being criticized,
or you may need to go to the person who's in
charge, a leader, or go to a person who can at
least be a part of the solution and not just
continue the talking with no fruit coming out
of that. Unity is a delicate and lovely blossom.
like a flower. If the plant is properly cared
for and protected, the blossom will produce a
fragrance and a beauty that all can enjoy. My
friend, it is only carelessness which will easily
kill it. Considering the potential of selfish
sin within all of us, We have to admit that it
was only the gracious work of God that unity
can exist at all in any church at any time. The
reason this Jerusalem church has such phenomenal
unity as found in verse 32 is because of the
gracious work of the Spirit of God within it.
In 1st Corinthians chapter 1, the Apostle Paul
says to that church, By the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that you all agree and there be
no divisions among you, but you be made complete
in the same mind and in the same judgment." Be
made complete, he says. The word there is restore.
It is that word that maybe you've heard used
elsewhere for the mending of fishing nets. He
says, Corinthians, you are divided. There are
factions, there are parties within your fellowship.
Later he explains that comes out of your carnality.
He says, I exhort you in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Be mended. Be put together. Allow
yourselves to be healed. Be restored to oneness.
It is the job of all of us to preserve unity.
But if it is the job of all of us to do that,
it is especially the job of leadership. In Acts
chapter 20, the Apostle Paul's words are again
found as he addresses the elders of the church
at Ephesus. Among a number of things he says
to them, he says in verse 28, be on guard for
yourselves and for all the flock. "...among which
the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd
the Church of God, which he purchased with his
own blood. How precious is the flock of God to
him! He has purchased it with the precious blood
of his Son." The apostle goes on to say, "...I
know that after my departure savage wolves will
come in among you, not sparing the flock." These
are people from the outside. Savage wolves, he
says, who will come in, undoubtedly referring
to false apostles, false teachers. Then he says
in verse 30, and from among your own selves,
men will arise, speaking perverse things. And
why will they do this? Why will they twist things?
Why will they distort them? He says, to draw
away the disciples after them. There is a perfect
definition of the heretic that we saw a few moments
ago in the book of Titus. One who desires to
draw away people after himself, to create his
own clique, his own bandwagon. I want you to
know that as the pastor of the church, I take
very seriously what the Word of God charges me
to do. I am jealous for the unity of this body.
Just as healthy blood cells are jealous for the
health of the body, so do all of us need to be
healthy cells jealous for the health of the body
to fight infection. And I urge every one of you
to that same kind of commitment. A few years
ago, I pastored a church in Texas, as some of
you know. When I went to the church, we were
running about 375, and there seemed to be good
potential for growth. It was the first church
I'd ever candidated at. In my first ministry,
where I was for seven and a half years, I was
already on staff and was called to be pastor.
So it wasn't really a candidation. That was my
first candidacy in Texas. Believe me, I have
learned since then how to ask. more incisive
questions of a pulpit committee. But on the surface,
things seemed to be pretty well in hand. Over
the next five months, though, we grew from 375
to about 250. It wasn't exactly the direction
that we had in mind in going there. About halfway
through that period, I found out what was going
on. within the church. The former pastor of the
church was quite opposed to my coming because
I was not of his particular stripe of Baptists.
Although he was pastoring a church in another
state altogether—and when you are in another
state from Texas, you are a long way away—he
was back in Dallas periodically. When he would
come to town, About every three weeks as a matter
of fact He would get on the telephone and call
people within that little church and urge them
to leave lying about me making My response though
it was tempered publicly internally was not exactly
tempered. I know what disunity can do to a church.
I have seen divisiveness at work. I know how
it destroys. And that's why I'm so unutterably
opposed to division and to strife and to factions
within a church body. Here's how I feel about
it. This may be a little strong for some of you,
but I don't think it's overstating the case.
I believe that the unity of a church is its virginity.
And to assault the unity of a church is to rape
it, the pure bride of Jesus Christ, and to leave
it spoiled. In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, the Apostle
Paul warns those who are creating problems in
the church at Corinth that the local church is
the temple of God. And he says, he who destroys
the temple of God, or he who defiles the temple
of God, him God. will defile. That is a very
serious statement. There's a good deal said in
the New Testament, as we have seen this morning
about oneness. Why is that? Because oneness is
so important, so fragile, and so difficult to
keep. I've said enough for this morning. We'll
go on with the rest of the message next week.
But I felt it was important to go into this.
to speak to the subject at length on this Lord's
day. He that has ears to hear, let him hear.
May the Spirit of God cause us to respond in
our hearts in a positive way as He would lead
us to, to preserve the unity of the local church.
Let's bow together. Father, I pray that you will
help each of us to see how precious is unity.
It is a pleasant thing, says your word. We give
you blessing and thanks for the unity that you
have brought in our church in its four years
of existence. Thank you, where people have been
faithful to check division, to stop disunity.
Thank you for the joy that we have experienced.
And Father, it is our expectation. for that to
continue. We recognize for that to happen it
will mean the abundance of your grace poured
out in our church. For there is within every
one of us the awful, terrible possibility of
destroying, of defiling your pure bride. And
I pray that you will do whatever is necessary
in our lives to prevent us from doing that. But
may we live in holiness. and not give Satan a
toehold in our lives. Give us repentant hearts
and determined hearts that we might see a phenomenal
unity maintained within the fellowship of this
church that you've called us by your grace to
be a part of. And it's in Jesus' name that I
pray this. Amen. In closing, I'd like for us
to sing together The first and last verses of
136. I'm going to stand here at the front as
is our custom. And if there is some need in your
life or if there is today a spiritual commitment
that you want to make, I invite you to come.
Meet me here and pray. Let's stand together as
we sing. Number 136, the first and then the last
verse.