Pray for Peace in God's Church

Q: What does the Bible say about church unity?

The Bible emphasizes the importance of unity among believers, especially highlighted in 1 Corinthians 1:10-16 and Ephesians 4:1-3. The Scriptures call believers to be united in thought and purpose, as seen in 1 Corinthians 1:10-16, where Paul urges the church to avoid divisions. Likewise, Ephesians 4:1-3 stresses walking in humility and love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The oneness among believers reflects our common faith in Christ and serves as a powerful testimony to the world of God’s grace in our lives.

Q: How do we know that God desires peace in His church?

God desires peace in His church as it reflects His nature, and Scriptures emphasize unity and harmony among His people. God's desire for peace within His church is evident throughout Scripture, particularly in passages such as Romans 12:18, which encourages living in harmony with one another. The act of praying for peace, as David spoke in Psalms 122:6, indicates that peace in the church is vital for spiritual health. Moreover, the New Testament affirmatively portrays the church as the body of Christ, where each member is meant to contribute to a unified work, demonstrating His glory and love through the absence of strife and division.

Q: Why is avoiding strife and division important for Christians?

Avoiding strife and division is crucial as it preserves the unity of the Spirit and reflects the love of Christ within the church. Avoiding strife and division is essential for Christians because it directly impacts the church’s witness to the world and the effectiveness of its mission. As Paul noted in 1 Corinthians 1:10, divisions harm the body of Christ and reflect a carnal mindset. By cultivating love and understanding, as encouraged in Ephesians 4:1-3, Christians maintain an environment where the Spirit can work freely. Unity enhances fellowship, encourages spiritual growth, and aligns the church’s purpose with glorifying God. Therefore, fostering harmony is a commandment and a necessity for a thriving community of faith.

Q: What does it mean to be one in Christ?

Being one in Christ means that believers share a common faith and identity, united as members of God's family. To be one in Christ signifies that all believers are united under the lordship of Jesus and are members of His body, the Church. This unity transcends individual differences, as articulated in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, where Paul explains that all believers are baptized by one Spirit into one body. This relationship emphasizes equality, love, and collaboration in the faith, reflecting the reality that all have been redeemed by the same grace through faith in Christ. Therefore, this oneness is both a profound spiritual connection and a call to live in harmony as a testimony of God’s transformative power in our lives.

Q: Why is it necessary for Christians to pray for the peace of the Church?

Praying for the peace of the Church is vital as it seeks God’s guidance and fosters unity among believers. Praying for the peace of the Church is paramount, as it aligns with God’s will for His people to live in harmony. As indicated in Psalms 122:6, believers are called to intercede for the peace of God’s city, which also applies to the church as the spiritual body of Christ. This prayer acknowledges our dependence on God and invites His divine intervention and guidance in maintaining unity. Furthermore, praying for peace cultivates a spirit of reconciliation and mutual understanding, which is essential for addressing conflicts and upholding the testimony of the Gospel within the community and to the world at large.

If you would please this morning
turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 Corinthians, the first chapter. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Let us read beginning with verse
10. Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment. For it hath been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Cole,
that there are contentions among you. Now this I say that every
one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas,
and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified
for you? Or were you baptized in the name
of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none
of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had
baptized in mine own name. And I baptized also the household
of Stephanas, besides I know not whether I baptized any other,
for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now recently I've had some things
upon my mind that have led me to this message today, and I
hope that that it's of the Lord. I believe it is and I hope that
we can profit from the time that we spend together today, this
morning, in this service. Now, it says in Psalms 122 and
verse 6, David said, pray for the peace
of Jerusalem. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Now the first application I'm
sure what he was talking about was for that city over there
in the Middle East, that city of which he was so fond. He said
pray for the peace of Jerusalem. But I believe that the primary
purpose of this verse or the message that we have and the
application that we ought to make of this verse of Scripture
is that we ought to pray for the peace of the Church of God. We ought to pray for the peace
of the Israel of God, which is the true Israel, the spiritual
Israel, which is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for
the peace of God's church. Pray that peace will reign and
fellowship will reign in the church of our Lord Jesus. Now
there's a reason for that. There's a reason why David would
say, pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for the Lord's church. And that
is this, that one of the saddest and most pathetic and most hurtful
displays of human sin and depravity in all the world is envy, strife,
and division among God's people. among the people of God. Envy,
strife, and division. This is one of the most painful
things that any pastor, any man called of God to preach has to
bear or to deal with is the envy, the strife, and the divisions
that come up in local churches. Trouble in the churches. Trouble,
envy, strife, division among the brethren. It ought not so
to be. It ought never to be. but it
is often the very state of affairs that we have to deal with. Now,
I recognize that we are somewhat a very special and unique people
here in this place, in that that we have a peace, and we have
a harmony, and we have a fellowship that I'll talk a little bit about
in a little while that is unique. And I've been around, and I know
something about what I'm talking about. I'm no novice. in this
area, but these things that I'm bringing out here, pointing out
to you this morning are essential. We need to lay a groundwork for
the things that we're going to say here today. You and I who
are born of God, we need to be reminded that we're loved by
one Father, by God Almighty, and we're chosen to be the sons
of God. We're redeemed by the precious
blood of one dear Savior, called by the grace and power of one
sweet and precious Holy Spirit. We're members of one everlasting
family. We are family, and we are family
forever if we're in God's family. If we're in the family of the
Lord, we are one in that family, and unless God intervenes and
changes things, some of my earthly family is going to be dissolved
one of these days. The family that I grew up in.
It's going to be dissolved. It's going to pass away. Because
some of the members of the family that I grew up in they know not
the Lord Jesus Christ They are not forgiven of sin, and they're
not in Christ. They're not one with him They're
not in this family that I'm talking about this morning But but listen
this family not this family that I'm talking about now this family
is the family of God and we're heirs we're of one glorious inheritance
of where heirs of God were joint heirs with Jesus Christ according
to the eternal purpose of God Almighty. The church I'm talking
about, the local church, those that are in the family of God. Now this, beloved, you would
think would be enough to keep our hearts united. The fact that
we're loved by one Father, redeemed by the blood of one dear Savior,
called effectually by one sweet and precious Holy Spirit. You
would think that because we're in one family and that we've
got this great inheritance that we're looking forward to, that
this would keep our hearts united and that we'd stay in fellowship
with one another and there wouldn't be any envy and strife and division
among the people of God. Well, it ought to be so if we're
really one in Jesus Christ. That means that we're really
one in heart, that we're really one in spirit, that we're really
one in soul. We love one Redeemer. We're one
in purpose as the Lord's people. We seek the glory of God our
Savior. That's our purpose. We seek God's
glory. We seek the glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He is crowned with many crowns,
and we'll crown Him with every crown we can find to place upon
His head. The glory of our God and Savior,
Jesus Christ. We seek the interest of His kingdom. That's our effort in this world. We're one in eternity and therefore
let us be one now in this world. Turn in your Bibles, if you will,
to the book of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians chapter
4. And listen as I read here beginning with verse 1. I therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness,
with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is
one body and one spirit, even as you're called in what hope
of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. And so there in verse 3, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace because
there is one body and there is one Spirit and we are called
in one hope of our calling. Now beloved, listen, for the
truth's sake and for one another's good and for the glory of God,
we ought to attempt and endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. In Psalm 133 in verse 1, David
said, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to
dwell together in unity. Well, why shouldn't they dwell
together? They're brethren. They're brethren. And the most
ridiculous thing in all the world is for brethren men and women
who are one in the Lord Jesus Christ, men and women who have
been accepted in Christ to the glory of God, that they should
fall out with one another. Now David said these words when
he thought about that gathering once a year by all of the children
of Israel as they got together to celebrate and to fellowship
together. He said how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. The poet said, how
sweet, how heavenly is the sight, when those that love the Lord
in one another's peace delight, and so fulfill his word, when
each can feel his brother's sigh, and with him bear apart, when
sorrow flows from eye to eye, and joy from heart to heart.
How beautiful a thing it is for there to be peace and harmony
and fellowship among God's dear people. Yet the Lord's churches
in this world has always had to deal with strife and envy
and divisions. It's always been so. How often,
brethren, because of petty, meaningless quarrels, quarrels about nothing
really, The churches are divided and strong rifts are made between
the brethren. I mean quarrels about nothing
Brethren sister, let me say this that if it does not affect anything
Everlastingly then it's about nothing. That's what it is. Really. It's about nothing I've heard
of some church quarrels that would make you my friend today
that would just simply make you sick to your stomach That would
make you nauseous Troubles that churches have had where churches
have split over whether or not the pews were going to be padded
or whether or not they were going to be just bare wood. church
quarrels over such little petty things as to whether or not they
were going to sing hymns or whether or not they were going to sing
the Psalms and have such quarrels until they had a church graveyard
that the church would split and splinter to the place where the
one side would dig up their dead out of the cemetery and move
them to another place. church quarrels that absolutely
were over nothing that ended up destroying the entire church. Yet this is so common, beloved,
about nothing churches are divided and their strife and envy and
division. Now the root from which this
ugly deformity spreads is the foolish pride of our depraved
hearts. That's where it comes from. When
you have this envy and this strife and this division, it comes from
the heart. You mark it down. James 4 and
1 says, From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come
they not? Hence, even of your lusts that
war in your members, ye fight and war, and ye desire to have,
but ye cannot have, because ye ask not. Now this is where it
comes from. And you can say what you will,
and you can trace it wherever you want to trace it, but beloved,
this is where it comes from. It comes from the depravity of
the hearts of those that are involved. It comes out of the
lust of men's hearts. Now hear me this morning, the
true people of God, they love one another. This is one of the
evidences that they've passed from death unto life, is that
they love the brethren. They are taught of God to love
one another. And the Scripture says we're
to be at peace among ourselves. And the Word says that this peace
that God in Jesus Christ has bought for us at Calvary, this
ought to reign in the assembly of the saints. And God's people
ought to be at peace. Blessed peace and harmony. Now, beloved, this is something
that's very rare. to find a church that is at peace
and harmony, that there's no divisions, that there's no quarreling,
that there is no situations that are at hand that is threatening
to disrupt the spirit and unity and the liberty of the church.
But beloved, we believe that here in this place, God has been
pleased to bless us with a rare thing, and that is harmony and
peace. Now the reason is, is that Jesus
Christ is the theme of our preaching. He is the sum total of our message. We're pointing men and women
to Jesus Christ. We're not here making an issue
out of little petty things that others are making an issue out
of. We must guard this harmony and this peace that we have.
Jesus Christ must be lifted up. We must not get concerned about
how long a woman's hair ought to be, how short a man's hair
ought to be. We must not get tied up with
little petty issues that have nothing to do with the central
issue and that is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and
that he died to save his people from their sin. And we must never
allow anybody to come into this assembly who is a legalist and
who would make an issue, who would immediately, the first
thing that they're concerned about is something other than
the Son of God and His finished work on Calvary. We're interested
in preaching Christ and His message, and we're not interested in getting
involved in all these things. Now this unity is our greatest
strength. You will not find it very many
places. You take my word for it. I've
been around and there's not too many places where there's not
division, where there's not somebody trying to drive a wedge, where
there's not somebody trying to tear up, to split, to divide
the Lord's living family. The scripture says that a house
divided against itself cannot stand and a church that is divided
cannot stand because it is weak. It's only as we endeavor to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace that we'll have
God's blessing. But now I make haste to say that
is not only the folks that are in the pew who have this trouble
with envy and strife and division. No, no, my friend. We find that
this has been true also among true gospel preachers throughout
the years. There have been strife. And there's
been division and contention even among preachers. And somebody
says, well, is that okay? No, it's not okay. You often
find jealousies along with this envy, strife, and division. You
say, surely that can't be. Oh yes, my friend, it is true. I read in the Bible, if you'll
turn back with me to Acts chapter 15, Turn to Acts 15, let me read
something to you here. We have two men, good men, godly
men, men that God used. In verse 35, Paul also and Barnabas
continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the
Lord with many others also. And some days after, Paul said
unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every
church or every city where we have preached the word of the
Lord and see how they do. And Barnabas determined to take
with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought it
not good to take him with them who departed from them from Pamphylia
and went not with them to the Word. And the contention in verse
39 was so sharp between them that they departed asunder, one
from the other. Barnabas took Mark and sailed
into Cyprus. Paul chose Silas and departed,
being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God. Here are
these two men that had worked together, good men I say, faithful
men, praying men, loyal men to the Lord Jesus Christ, but here
they separated, never to work together again. They had this
sharp contention over John Mark and whether or not he should
be taken again with them on this missionary tour. Now listen,
Martin Luther and John Paul were the instruments of the Lord 500
years ago which God used to break the back of the papist, of the
Roman Catholic Church. God mightily used these two men,
yet these two men had absolutely no use for one another. They
had no use for each other. Now, then, I thought also of
Benjamin Keech. Benjamin Keech was a Baptist
preacher in England. And he was a man who was a very
faithful preacher of the gospel. And I've read where that he's
the man that first introduced hymns into the churches and advocated
that It was not necessary for them to sing psalms every time
they came together that they could sing hymns that he himself
had been the author of and others had authored. And they could
sing these hymns and that it would still be alright with the
Lord. That the Lord wasn't going to
get angry about it if they quit singing out of the psaltery.
And he took flack like you wouldn't believe from men of his day. Letters, I mean to tell you he
got the letters where he was accused of being everything from
an apostate right on down to a reprobate he was accused of
because he felt that we could sing hymns in the church. Now,
brother, sister, this has been true. This is a real problem.
And I want you to look here. Here in the book of 1 Corinthians,
if you turn back there to the verses that I've read to you
a moment ago, this church of Corinth, this was a problem in
this church. It was a problem of preacher-itis. And they had a great deal of
strife and division because of these preachers. Now, it was
probably this church in Corinth, the largest church of Paul's
day, and it was probably the wealthiest church, it was probably
the most talented church, and probably was the most influential
church of Paul's day, of the apostolic day. But this church
was severely hampered in its usefulness by petty quarrels
and divisions, which they had now here in verse 10 Paul says
I beseech you brethren in chapter 1 verse 10 by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ I beseech you that is a word there that that
means I implore I beg I get down on my knees and I beg you brethren
in the name of that means something to every child of God the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing
that there be no divisions among you but that you be perfectly
joined together the same mind and in the same judgment now
in verse 11 he says I've heard that that you people are divided
I've heard there's contentions among you and the problem is
that one of you says I'm of Paul I am of Paul. Now Paul was a
plain, simple, he was a precise, he was a doctrinal preacher,
and he was one that was very easy to follow. He was a man
that... He was the entertainer. And some
people said, I don't like this entertainment business. I don't
like this man because he's got all of that polished speech.
And whenever he gets up to preach, well, I mean, he just puts your
head in a daze. He's just an outstanding speaker. And some said, we like him. Others
said, we don't. And then there was Cephas. Look
at that, an eye of Cephas. There was some that said, I like
that old Peter. He's a crude preacher, and he's a boisterous
man, and he's a loud preacher, and I like that old Peter. He's
just the kind of fella that'll just go out there. He's a down-home
type preacher. He's a country preacher, and
I like that old Peter. And so there was a division.
And then there was those pious folks in the church. I mean,
they were really pious. They said, well, they said, well,
we're of Christ. We don't need any preacher. We
don't need any preacher. We don't want any preacher. We're
of Christ. We've got Christ, we don't need
nobody to preach to us, and we don't care a thing about these
men. Well, Paul said, all of this is wrong. And he shows us
in chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians, and in verse 3, that this is
carnality. And notice it in verse 3. of
chapter 3, for you're yet carnal, and that word is fleshly minded.
For whereas there is among you envying and strife and division,
are you not fleshly? And don't you walk as men? This
is the way men of the world would walk. This is the way men of
the world would act. They act this way because they're
not redeemed, they're not regenerated, they're not in Christ, they don't
have the Spirit of God dwelling in them and the love of God's
Spirit in their hearts. They don't have it. They're carnal
and fleshly. For while one says I'm of Paul
and another I'm of Apollos, is this not carnality? Is this not
a fleshly mind? Who then is Paul and who is Apollos? But ministers by whom you believe
even as the Lord gave to every man. Have planted a polish water,
but God gave the increase look at verse 7 So then neither is
he that planted anything neither neither he that watereth But
God that gives the increase now. This is something that we need
to see here clearly in verse 7 and Paul here plainly says
that those that do the planting and those that do the watering,
that they are nothing. Isn't that what he says? So that
neither is he that planted anything, neither he that watereth. But
God that gives the increase. The preacher himself is nothing. He is nothing that we should...
We're just instruments in God's hand. Nothing's in and of ourselves. And we need to understand that.
I think some preachers have missed this part of the Word of God.
But the increase, God must give it. Now we see here also in 2
Corinthians chapter 4, If you want to turn there in your Bibles,
you can. But Paul said there in the 5th
verse, he said, For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus
the Lord, and ourselves your servants, your servants for Jesus'
sake. And in verse 7, he said, But
we have this treasure, we have the gospel message. We have the
truth as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the riches of
God's grace in Christ in words and we have all of this in an
earthen vessel that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Now God used nothings and nobodies
and the reason is that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. God is going to reveal His own
work. If anything happens in the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God must do it. If it really is of
God. If it really happens. Now listen,
if He blesses the voice of the preacher, and if men and women
are unable to hear the voice of Christ, Christ, in the voice
of the preacher, it is because God has given the increase. It is because God has done it,
the excellency of the powers of God, and it's not of men.
And we must keep our eyes upon the Lord, and our expectation
as a church must be from Him, and not from a man. Because a
man, he that watereth and he The planet is nothing. It's God
that gives the increase and so keep your eyes on the Lord and
stop making an issue out of Who's preaching today and whether or
not I'll come it will depend upon who is doing the preaching
now in first Corinthians 3 in verses 16 and 17 look at these
two verses He said, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the
temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God
is holy, which temple ye are. Now here is the strongest verses
and warnings that I know of anywhere in the Bible against those who
would sow strife and division in the temple of God. Now he's
talking about the local church at Corinth. He says, know ye
not that ye are the temple of God? That this church at Corinth
was the temple of God and I believe that every local church where
the people of God meet together and the Spirit of God has brought
them together and united them and brought them together, I
believe that these churches are the temples of the living God. It's where God is meeting with
His people. Ye are God's temple. Now, it says here in verse 17,
if any man defile, If any man defile, now the word defile here
does not mean to make dirty, but it means to divide and to
destroy. That if any man is to divide
and destroy the temple of God, him shall God destroy. God will destroy this man. Now beloved, many of the professing
churches of our day, if they were real and true churches,
They wouldn't be getting along with some of the division and
strife and envy and the carrying on that goes on in these churches
because God Almighty would be intervening in them. It's just
like a big lodge or some club where they have all this bickering
and fussing and all this. But if it's God's temple, The
scripture says, he that would defile that temple, God will
destroy him, because God Almighty is not the author of confusion,
but He's the author of peace, as He is in all the churches
of the saints. God is the author of peace, and
not the author of confusion. And so, let's remember these
two verses. The man that would sow a discord
and the man that would sow division and would be envious and full
of strife and attempt to destroy the church and divide it, God
Almighty will take up the case because it's the temple of God.
It's God's temple. Now look with me, if you will,
at what we have said over in the fourth chapter. Now with
what we have said as the background, you look with me here in chapter
four. Paul has, I think, dedicated
the first four chapters Of the book of first corinthians at
least in dealing with this common Problem that the church had their
divisions over preachers and preachers being divided in and
of themselves now in verse one of chapter 4, he says, let a
man sow a count of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards
of the mysteries of God. Now Paul said I want people to
look at us, let a man, whoever he be, let a man sow a count
of us. Myself, Paul says, Apollos, Cephas,
Let me in account of us as of the ministers of Christ. Now
the word ministers there is servant. And it's not only just a servant,
a plain simple servant. but it's a household servant. A household servant. It's one
of the lowest forms of a servant. Servants in the house of Jesus
Christ. Servants whose responsibility
it is to care for and to protect and to meet the needs of Christ's
family. Now that's what a servant is. He's not to be looked upon as
a scholar or a theologian, but he's to be looked upon as a servant
of Jesus Christ, as a household servant, one to protect, one
to feed the church of the living God. Now let the true ministers
be held in high esteem and love, we read in 1 Thessalonians chapter
5. You might want to look at this
verse of scripture with me. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, I
want you to see what this scripture here says. It says in verse 12,
and we beseech you brethren, 1 Thessalonians 5, 12, we beseech
you brethren to know them which labor among you. and are over
you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very
highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves."
And be at peace among yourselves. Now then, he says, not only do
I want you to account us as being ministers, just servants of Christ,
but also that we're stewards. stewards of the mysteries of
God. Now a steward is the guardian
and he's the dispenser of his master's riches. Keep that in
mind. That's what a steward is. He
is one that dispenses. He's one that is the guardian
of the riches of the house. This is what we are as preachers,
Paul said. And in verse 2, the steward does
not have to build the master's house. The Master does that. The preacher doesn't. You know,
this is God's house. God adds to the church as He
will in His sovereignty and in His power, His saving power.
He brings in and adds to the church. And the steward does
not have to produce the riches of the Master's house. The Master,
He does that. And so, beloved, the Church is
built up, and we are built up upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
and the Church is enriched by being nourished by the Lord Jesus
Christ, and we have the riches of God in Christ, we have the
mind of Christ, and these are the riches of the Master. And
the preacher doesn't furnish them, he just simply dispenses
those great rich truths of the Word of God that enriches the
lives of the Lord's living family. But it says also that it's required
in stewards that they be found faithful. That they be found
faithful. Faithful in guarding and dispensing
the truth of God. Faithful the preachers to be.
Now this God requires of a preacher. That he be faithful. That he
does not handle the word of God deceitfully. That he take the
word of God and use it and become a huckster of men's souls. but
that he is faithful in guarding and dispensing the truth of God. And this requires, God requires
of us, and it would be for the glory of God, and it would certainly
be for the welfare of his family if God's preachers are faithful. What a responsibility that the
preacher has. As we have found, He is nothing
but a slave, a household servant of the Lord Jesus Christ to the
Church of Christ. We preach not ourselves, but
we're your servants for Jesus' sake. Now, there's a point in
what I'm trying to say here. Now, I want to drive this home
to you. In verse 3 of chapter 4, Paul
says, but with me, it's a very small thing that I be judged
of you or of man's judgment, yea, I judge not my own self. Now, Paul was accused of many
as being self-servant. We know that he was not self-serving. Paul built tents with his own
hands, provided his own living, and paid the expenses of those
in his own company. He was not a self-serving man,
but there was all kinds of opinions floating around about the Apostle
Paul, and what kind of a person he was, what kind of a man that
he was. And beloved, there is never a
shortage of opinions floating around about preachers, especially
preachers that God owns. There's always some opinions
floating around. But Paul says it's a very small
thing to me that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. He said, I don't even judge myself.
I don't know about my usefulness. I don't know how much God's used
me. I don't know how much God plans
to use me, what He plans to do with me. And all of that, I don't
judge my own self. I've not put an A plus on my
own report card. I'll leave that, he says, I'll
leave with the Lord. He said, I don't know anything by myself.
I know nothing by myself, in verse 4. Meaning, he says, I
don't know anything against myself. He said, as far as I know, I'm
walking in good conscience, and I'm trying to do what I ought
to do. I'm trying to be faithful to God and to the stewardship
which God has given me. He said, I know nothing by myself,
yet even the fact that I don't know anything against myself,
that don't justify me. That don't justify me. No, not
indeed. Now there's a lot of people that
will approve of themselves. Give themselves an A-plus on
their report card and say, you just look at me. And I'm this,
I'm that, I'm something else. But Paul was not that kind of
an individual and we ought not be either. Now look at this.
He said, but he that judgeth me is the Lord. I mean the Lord
is the only judge. And we ought never to assume
his prerogative nor anticipate his decision, but we must leave
everything until that day when the Lord will look at verse 5. Therefore, judge nothing before
the time. Leave it until the last day.
Now, brother, sister, I wouldn't spend my breath trying to in
any way, shape, or form vindicate myself in any way. There are those that would say,
well, John Mitchell's a freewheeler. There's been those that have
accused me of being a freewheeler right here in the state of Montana.
Now, I might rob the bank tomorrow, but being a freewheeler, I never
will. I haven't been, and I'm not about to be a freewheeler.
And anybody who thinks I am, of course, has got problems,
I think, somewhere 18 inches above their heart. They got some
problems someplace. But listen to me this morning.
I will not spend any time trying to vindicate myself. I'm prepared
to wait until the judgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord. Now look at this verse here.
He said, Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come
who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness. There's some
things that's going to be brought out in the judgment. We don't
know about them now. We can't make a right judgment
about some things because they're not in the light yet. Now then
he says, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness
and make manifest the counsels of the heart. Then we're going
to know and then shall every man have praise of God if he's
got any coming. If he's got any coming, then
he'll have praise of God. Well, what are we leading up
to? Paul said in verse 6, These things, brethren, I have in a
figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes,
that you may learn in us not to think of men above that which
is written. I don't want you thinking anything
of a man above what I've written. Paul said a preacher is a servant
He's a steward of the mysteries of God and he's nothing in and
apart or separated from the blessing of God. If God doesn't bless
it, you can water and plant, nothing will come of it. It's
God. who is to be recognized as the
sovereign cause of all things and especially of the victories
of His house and the supplies of His house. Now then, I want
you to look here. He said, I want to apply this
in a figure to myself and to Apollos. I don't want you to
ever think above that which is written of men. Don't do it.
That no one of you be puffed up one against another. That
there won't be any quarreling and bickering back and forth
in the churches over men. I don't want these divisions.
People pulling at each other and trying to destroy or tear
up the church over personalities. Never, never, never. In verse
7, and we're coming down here getting close to the end. For
whom maketh he to differ from another? And what hast thou that
thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? Now, beloved, this verse of Scripture
applies to preachers. It applies to preachers. And
preachers are different. There is that preacher like Paul,
and then there is that Apollos, and then there is that Cephas.
And God has made them to differ. This is true. This is true. And we're to recognize that the
difference, God has made the difference. Now, this applies
not only to preachers, but it also applies to believers and
unbelievers. There is a definite difference
between believers and unbelievers. Now, in closing this morning,
I want to make two statements. And then I want to ask one question.
I make two statements and one question. It'll take me just
a little bit to do it. You bear with me. Now listen,
I know this is the first statement that I want to make about this.
I know that there is a sense in which God's people do not
differ at all from anybody else. Naturally, there is no difference
between God's people and everybody else in the world. There is a
sense in which that is true. Now God's people are redeemed
by grace, they're called by grace, they're regenerated by the grace
of God, but we are sinners still. We are. Now unless you understand
this seventh verse And if you don't understand the things that
I'm saying, you're never going to be able to treat your brethren
and your sisters as you ought. You're never going to be able
to get a view of this church relationship and the fellowship
of the body of Christ that you ought to have, and you'll never
be able to accept the Lord's people as you ought to accept
them, and there will be strife, there will be envy, there will
be division, and there will be calamities in the churches of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you listen to what I'm saying,
we are the people of God, but we are sinners still. Now, grace does not eradicate
the old nature, neither does it change the old nature that
we were born with. Grace subdues the old nature,
and grace rules over the old nature, but until the day that
we die, the old nature will not be destroyed. By the grace of
God, we stand today accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ, but
the old nature is exactly what it has always been. Now we need
to keep that in mind. We know this, we know something
about the depravity and the sinfulness of our hearts. Not the extent
of it, but we know something about it. We know that the old
monster still lives in here. Now every one of you today that's
got any spiritual sense, have had any illumination by the Spirit
of God knows that you are sinners still. You know that you're not
perfect and you know that the old monster of sin is still in
you. Now listen, I have sinned, I
do sin, but what is worst of all is I am sin. That's what we are. That's the
worst thing about it. Sin is mixed, the old song says,
with all I do. Is that true? Is that true? Now
we got to keep these things in mind if we're going to be able
to accept one another and if we're going to be able to deal
with one another. We don't need browbeating. God's people, God's
poor, afflicted, storm-tossed family don't need brow-beating,
they need some encouragement and they need some prayer and
they need people to understand them that we're all alike in
this thing, that we're sinners still. Now you listen to me this
morning, unless my heart deceives me, there is nothing in this
world that is more delightful to me than prayer. Nothing in this world, I say,
that is more delightful. To be able to wake up in the
night and to be able to pray and cry to God, the spirit of
supplication upon you. But there is nothing that is
more difficult for me in this world than to pray. It is. You say, well, I don't understand
that, Preacher. Listen, a man can fill space with words. That's not prayer. True prayer,
we long for it, we desire it, we want it, but to be able to
do it in and of ourselves, we don't have the ability to pray
believing prayers in and of ourselves. Now listen, there's nothing in
the world that I desire more than to believe God. Just to
be able to believe God. I'd like to be able to do that.
But listen to me, it seems to me that there's nothing more
difficult. You can't give yourself faith. You want to believe God
about every one of your situations, about all your circumstances,
about all your trials, about all of the needs, and about all
of the future, and the clouds that are hanging over you. You
just want to believe God! But you see, now I'm talking
about the common situation we're all in. You see, we want to pray,
but it's hard work, and we're not doing it as we ought. And
we find difficulty, and we want to believe God, but we're struggling
to do it, and we're pressured to do it, and we need to do it.
We know we must do it, but we're not doing it. We seemingly have
trouble in doing it. There's nothing in this world
that I long to do but to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, to walk
with Him, daily in sweet communion. I don't mean just to meet here
and have a good meeting. I don't mean that. I mean to
daily, hourly, to live in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ and
to walk with Him and to be in communion with Him. But there's
nothing that seems to me to be further from my reach than to
be able to do this. I want to. And so all of God's
people commonly together are finding these difficulties. And
we need to understand each other and to know what's coming on.
And I want to be like Christ, like the brother prayed in his
prayer. But the harder I strive, the further out of reach this
seems to be to me. It may seem closer. In other
words, I may deem it to be closer in your situation. But it seems
further out of reach to me and to my situation that I'm like
the Lord Jesus. The fact is that I'm a man at
war with himself. That's what the truth is. And
the truth is that every child of God is a person that is at
war with himself. Now if we could just understand
that about each other, Galatians 5 and 17 says, For the flesh
lusteth against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh, and
these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot
do the things that you would. There it is. We're at war with
one another, or at war with ourselves. Tell me ye that love the Lord,
the song says, is it so with you? Is it so with you? Well, I'm certain that you would
have to say, well this is a fact and we need to face it. Now the
second statement is this, listen to this, that this text does
clearly imply that there is a difference between the believer and the
reprobate of this world. Who maketh thee to differ? There is a difference between
the regenerate and the unregenerate. I want you to look, if you will,
in 1 Corinthians 6, and look at verses 9 through 12, and I'll
be done here in just a second. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. Verse 11, And such were some
of you. Now see, this takes in about
everybody and what we were at one time or the other. And such
were some of you, but ye are washed. But ye are sanctified. We're washed in the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We are sanctified. We have that
new nature, that divine nature of God, which has been implanted
in us, which has separated us from the world. We have that
principle of grace which God has put in us that makes us different. And God's people are different,
the cause of regeneration and this sanctification. But we are
justified. Immediately when God took up
our case, He pronounced us justified. that the old, listen, the blood
of Christ has removed from us the record of heaven against
us all that was ever done. It's removed from us that record
that was in heaven of all of our sin and all of our past. It's all been blotted out. God's
people are justified. He tells us we're justified at
the very moment He takes up our case. Now, listen, grace changes
a man's life. Now you can change your life
without grace. A man that is an alcoholic, he
can go to the AAA and they'll tell him how he can quit drinking,
how he can change his life. And if a man is a smoker and
he doesn't have the ability to quit on his own, he can get him
a hypnotist and be hypnotized once or twice a year and he can
get away from smoking. And if that won't do it, he can
go down to the drugstore and get him a patch and wear that
patch and that'll make him think he's, at least make him think
he doesn't want to smoke anymore. And he'll quit. You can change
your life apart from the grace of God, but you cannot be a partaker
of God's grace without your life being affected and changed by
it. If you are a protector of the grace of God, you are indeed
different. 2 Corinthians 5 and 17 says that
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things have
passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. We have a new master. We are different. The Spirit
of God is in us. And where the Spirit of God is,
there is the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, and peace. Told you
God's people love each other that they're taught of God to
love each other in this world now then the question the question
is this and that is What do you and I have that we've not received? What do we have if we have anything? Is there anything? Is there anything
that we have in this new creation? That's made us different Is there
anything that distinguishes us from other people that we did
not receive? There's not a thing. Not a thing
that we have. And that's exactly the point
of the text. That's exactly the point of that
verse of scripture. What have you that you've not
received? And if you have received it,
if you did get it from God, it didn't come out of your pocket,
it didn't come from your mama, it didn't come from your daddy,
it came from God, and if it came from Him, then why do you go
around bragging about it, boasting about it, carrying on about it?
how smart you are, and how much light you've got, and how dumb
everybody else is, and how ignorant everybody else is, and how far
short everybody else comes, and how far up the ladder you are,
and so on. Why are you bragging about it? If you received it,
then don't brag about it, because it's of God. It's of God. And quit bragging, and accept
the brethren for what they are in Christ, And let there be no
strife, let there be no envy, let there be no division, let
there be no contention about preachers or personalities. Stay
away from it, and stay away from it now. God makes men to differ.
A man or a thing, as I've often told you, J.C. Philpott said,
a man or a thing is nothing more than what God makes it. And that's
the way it is. But brother, sister, these simple
lessons that we've learned here this morning are not very commonly
known. They're not very commonly known. These things are not preached
in most professing churches. Very few people could sit down
and say, well, I could preach that. I'd spit that right out. Very few people ever heard anything
like this. They've heard, well, we ought not be bickering and
fussing. Oh, we ought not. But we ought not. If so and so
was what they ought to be, we wouldn't be. And so on and so
forth, you know. And there's all kinds of people
in the churches. There's people that will never
be reconciled to anything, I don't suppose. They were, as one fellow
said, they were rubbed with a corncob and baptized in vinegar and they
can't ever have a good, pleasing Personality and then there's
those people that say well, I feel so bad that I feel good because
I know I'm gonna feel worse There's that kind of people in the world
and in churches. And so what are you gonna do
with them? well, you got to be understanding
and you got to be patient and You got to leave it with the
Lord because God makes people to differ but in the church you
gotta endeavor To keep the unity of the spirit in the bottom of
peace. You gotta protect what you got And you gotta be careful
about who you let come into the membership of the body. You let
people come in and the first thing they want to do is find
fault with the outward appearance of somebody, you've got a problem
on your hands. You've got a real problem on
your hands. You've got somebody that wants to change something
about the order of service because it's not just like they want
and like it's got to be if it's going to be blessed of God, you
see. And there's some people that say you gotta drink out
of one cup at the communion. Just one cup. If you don't drink
out of that one cup, you can't take the Lord's Supper. Well,
that's a bunch of Tommy Rock foolishness. There ain't a bit
of truth to it. But there's people, there's churches that's been
split over that. And you can't, you gotta be careful
what you're doing. Whenever you open your doors,
the doors of the church, because some of the folks you might get
are people you don't want, and people that would sow the discord
and bring the problems that we don't have and we don't need.
We don't need. Life's too short, death's too
certain, eternity's too long to have some of the problems
that some people have. And I don't want them. I don't
want them, and I know you don't. And so let's listen to what the
Word of God says. Father, we thank you for your
mercies, your goodness to us today, and for this message. Grant that we might believe it,
receive it, accept it, and that it might guide us all in the
future. We pray it for Christ's sake,
in His name, amen.

Pray for Peace in God's Church

What does the Bible say about church unity?

How do we know that God desires peace in His church?

Why is avoiding strife and division important for Christians?

What does it mean to be one in Christ?

Why is it necessary for Christians to pray for the peace of the Church?

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Pray for Peace in God's Church

What does the Bible say about church unity?

How do we know that God desires peace in His church?

Why is avoiding strife and division important for Christians?

What does it mean to be one in Christ?

Why is it necessary for Christians to pray for the peace of the Church?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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