I'm going to attempt to preach
upon this subject tonight. Unity. Unity, a very important subject. In verse 11, Paul is addressing
the problem that was going on in Corinth. He says in verse 11, For it hath
been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by then which are
of the house of Chloe, that there are contingents among you." Now,
in this church, there was disunity. There were contentions. There
were strivings. There were arguings. Now, the
fact that this was a problem in this church, in Corinth, is
a reminder to us that wherever you have men, you have problems. But this disunity was very sinful. Look what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
3 regarding this, when he's speaking to these same people about this
subject. He says in verse 1, And I, brethren, could not speak
unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Christ. Paul is saying you're childish
to these people. You're acting like big babies.
I can't even talk to you like adults. He said, I fed you with
milk and not with me. For hitherto you were not able
to bear it. Neither now are you able. For you are yet carnal. You act just like unbelievers. For whereas there is among you
envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as
men? This is what he says to these
people. You all are acting like a bunch of unbelievers. You're
acting immature, childish, and petty. That's what he says to
this group of people. Now, look back in 1 Corinthians
1, verse 10. Let's look at his argument. He says in verse 10, Now I beseech
you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He begins with the most powerful
of all arguments. He says, this is what I'm beseeching
you by, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know that
is sufficient to stop a believer dead in his tracks if he sees
that his conduct and his speech and his talk is disordering to
the Lord Jesus Christ? Paul says, I beseech you by the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not beseeching you by my
name. I'm beseeching you by the name of Christ. And if you love
Christ, if you're bringing dishonor to his name, that's enough to
stop you, isn't it? By his grace, that's enough.
He says, now I beseech you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And look what he's asking them to do, that you all speak the
same thing. That there be no divisions among
you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind
And in the same judgment, now he calls upon these people literally
to speak the same thing. And he's not telling them to
overlook differences, is he? He says, speak the same thing.
He's not telling them to keep their mouths shut regarding controversial
subjects, but to speak the same thing, literally have the same
words. Speak the same thing, unified
speech that comes from unified hearts. Now, he's not talking
about using the same catchphrases. And, you know, sometimes people
will get a phrase that they're looking for. If they don't hear
that, it's not sound. He's not talking about that.
He's talking about the same doctrine, the same truth, the same gospel. He's speaking of a true unity
of heart, a true unity of purpose. It's a true unity of doctrine
speaking the same thing, and he expresses this both in a negative
way and in a positive way. First, he speaks of this in a
negative way. Notice he says in verse 10, I
beseech you that there be no divisions among you. Now, that word is schisms or
rents, differences of opinion. I don't want there to be any
differences of opinion, feelings of alienation and separation
that should not be among believers regarding the things of Christ.
No differences even of opinion, no divisions. Now, we can have
differences of opinion in many things. Contrary to popular opinion,
it is possible to be a Christian and be a Democrat. I know that
it seems like a lot of folks don't seem to think that, but
it's possible. It's possible. I knew I would get some objections
to that, but what I'm trying to say is you can have a totally
polarized view politically about certain things and feel very
strong about those things and still have true unity of spirit. Believing the same things. And
let me also say this regarding people's opinions on politics
and stuff like that. I'm all for strong opinions and
so on, but learn to compromise. And I don't mean compromise your
convictions, but if somebody believes something, you don't
need to get in an argument about it. Just keep your mouth shut. That's
the only way to handle it. And compromise. If you don't learn to compromise
certain things, you're not going to have any friends. That's true. We can have difference of opinion
on many things, but there is no room for differences of opinion
regarding how God saves sinners. There's no room for differences
of opinion concerning the glory of God, the blood of Christ,
the grace of God. There can be no differences of
opinions and have God save sinners, nor is there a need for compromise
here because believers are at agreement, aren't they? How can
two walk together except they be agreed? Well, the fact of the matter
is, if they are agreed, they do walk together, don't they?
We walk together believing the same gospel. Now, he says, I
don't want there to be any divisions among you. But then he notes
this also in a positive. He says that you'd be perfectly,
look at the language of this. He says that you'd be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Now,
that's unity, isn't it? Perfectly joined together where
we were in agreement, complete, perfect agreement, the same mind
and the same judgment. There is such a thing as Christian
unity. And it's the most, oh, what a
powerful unity this is. There's a true agreement, and
unity means one. One. We're one in Christ Jesus. We're one in doctrine. We're
one in belief. And this union with one another
that we share, you know, we're getting ready to take the Lord's
table. And I think it's so special, you can't take the Lord's table
by yourself. You take it with the church, with those who love
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's something we do together.
And what unity there is in that. And this union we have with one
another comes because of union with Christ. Both he that sanctifies
and they who are sanctified are all of one. For the witch cause, he's not
ashamed to call them brethren. And I love the way the scriptures
uses marriage. to illustrate this union where
he tells us the two become one flesh. And he says, I'm speaking concerning
a great mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the church.
I'm one with him. What he did, I did if I'm one
with him. Where he is, I am if I'm one
with him. Who he is, I am if I am one with
him. True unity. And if I'm one with
him, And if you're one with him, you know what? We're one with
each other, aren't we? There's a true unity. Turn to John 17 for just a moment. Verse 20. The Lord is praying for his church
in this wonderful, glorious prayer in John 17. And he says in verse
20, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which
shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one. As thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us. That the world
may believe that thou sent me and the glory which thou gavest
me, I've given them that they may be one. Even as we are one
now, how one is the father and the son. And he says, that's
how one the believers are to each other. Verse 23, I and them
and thou and me, that they may be made perfect in one, that
the world may know that thou has sent me and that thou has
loved them. as thou hast loved me." Now,
how in the world can God the Father love me the same way He
loves His Son? Because I'm one in Him. And if
I'm one in Him and you're one in Him, we're one in each other,
aren't we? There's a true, genuine unity. Now, I want to see how this unity
is expressed in the Scriptures. Would you turn with me to Ephesians
chapter 4? Verse one and what I want us
to notice in this passage of Scripture is the use of the of
the. Number one. By the Apostle Paul
in this passage of Scripture, this is very important. The numeral
one and he says in verse one of Ephesians chapter four, I
therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk. Worthy. Of the calling. The vocation or the calling wherewith
you are called. Now, here's your call. Now, everybody
in here does different things for a living, I'm sure, but you
have what we all have the same calling. Our calling is to be
a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, is to be a follower of
him. And that's our calling. And how
do I walk worthy of this calling wherewith I was called? He says
in verse two, with all lowliness. And meekness. with long-suffering,
forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now, I'm to do what it
takes to keep that unity. I'm to deny myself in whatever
way I need to deny myself to keep that unity that he speaks. Is this unity worth endeavoring
to keep? It surely is. Now, look what
he says regarding this unity of the spirit that he's speaking
of in verse four. There is one body, there is only
one church. It's not split up into denominations.
You know denominations are so man-made. Every single one of
them. Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians,
Catholics, Episcopal, every one of them. You can't find them
in the Bible. They're man-made. Somebody wants to argue for their
denomination. Well, you're not going to be able to argue with
it from the scriptures, are you? It's man made. There's one body,
the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one spirit, he
says in verse four, the Holy Spirit. He's the one who gives
us life, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which
is born of the spirit is spirit. And we have the same nature,
don't we? And that's this. There's one spirit who teaches.
He's the one who teaches us. And we have the nature that he
gives us. Now, that's a true unity, isn't
it? There's one spirit. Even as you're called in one
hope, if you're calling, there's one hope. There's not two hopes.
There's only one. One hope. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We believe that, don't we? There's
only one hope. The only hope I have is that
Jesus Christ, the Lord, put away my sin on Galilee Street and
he took his precious righteousness and it's mine. That's my hope.
That's my only hope. There's not two hopes. Only one. Verse five. There's one Lord,
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one faith. There's not
two faiths. There's only one. It's called in Titus 1.4 the
common faith. It's that which is common to
all. All of God's elect have the exact
same faith. They believe the same thing.
They believe the same gospel. There's one faith. There's one
baptism. Baptism by mercy. That's the
only one scripture recognizes. The baptism of the Holy Spirit.
There's one baptism. There's one God. The Father of
all, who's above all and through all. and in you all. Now, Satan's
objective is to destroy this unity, because if the number
one can be substituted with any other number, there's confusion
in there. All of a sudden, we have to make
a choice. Which one's right? If the number one can be substituted
with any other number, there is confusion. Do you know what
heresy means? The word heresy means literally
a choosing, a choosing one over the other. A choice has to be
made between two or more. Once one is taken away, the message
is taken away. The simplicity of Christ is taken
away. There's not two options. One. Now go back to our text in 1
Corinthians 1. Now Paul says, 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. Now he addresses the problem
in verse 11. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren,
by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions
among you, schisms, rents." And here's what they were, verse
12. Now this I say, that every one of you say, I'm a Paul, and
I'm a Paulist, and I'm a And I have Christ. Is Christ divided?
Now, I think this is very different. The nature of these differences
and contentions are brought out. And it's very interesting to
me to notice that on the surface, this doesn't seem like a doctrinal
difference, does it? It's preferences of preachers. Somebody says,
well, I prefer Paul's preaching. I prefer Paul. He's the chief
of the apostle. I'm one of his followers and
somebody else prefers Apollos. And the scripture points out
that Apollos was an eloquent man, mighty in the scriptures. And the scripture seems to intubate
that Paul was not a very good speaker. Well, who would you
rather listen to, an eloquent man, a powerful speaker, or one
who fumbles in his speech? Of course, you probably, these
people would rather hear a Paulist preacher. Then, no doubt, there
were some Jewish believers in the church, of course, and Peter
was the apostle to the Jews. Remember, Paul was sent to the
Gentiles, Peter was sent to the Jews, and some preferred Peter,
I guess, perhaps because they were Jewish. And then the real
pious ones, they said, I don't follow any man. I'm no man follower. I follow the Lord Jesus Christ,
and I don't follow any man. Boy, that sounds good, doesn't
it? That sounds real pious. But it's dead wrong. Paul said, follow me as I follow
Christ. Now, if I'm following Christ,
if I am, and you refuse to follow me, you're not following Christ,
are you? Follow me as I follow Christ. Now, we've already seen how Paul
had utterly condemned this way of thinking, he said, it's wrong,
it's wrong, you're acting carnal, you're acting like unbelievers,
you're acting childish. Now, look what he says in verse
13, he asks this question. He says, is Christ divided? Are there different divisions
in Christ, are there different denominations with different
beliefs in Christ? Now, are there? Now, the answer
is very simple. No, Christ is not divided. And where that stuff takes place,
you have people truly following a man. Here's an example. The
more I think about this, the more strongly I feel about it.
I hate the term Calvinist. Calvinist. I hate that term. I really do. I hate it. You know
why? Since when do you ascribe the truth to a sinful man? John
Calvin was a sinful man. What about a nihilist? You say,
I wouldn't be one of those. Well, I wouldn't either. You'd
be awful stupid to be a nihilist, wouldn't you? Well, you're just
as stupid to be a Calvinist. In that sense, it's just what
a man says. I don't want to follow a man
in that sense and believe something because a man said it and put
a man's name on it. No. Are there divisions within
the body of Christ? Absolutely not. Look what he says next. Was Paul
crucified for you? Well, that's an abomination,
isn't it? Paul wasn't crucified for you. Were you baptized in
the name of Paul? Well, obviously not. I think
this is so interesting. Paul is showing that he wasn't
trying to gain a following. He says in verse 14, I thank
God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius. Now, that's
interesting. I'm thankful. I'm thankful to the Lord that
I didn't baptize you people, is what he said. Because if I
baptized you, then somebody would accuse me of saying, well, he's
just trying to baptize in his own name and trying to gain a
following and so on. He says in verse 15, I think,
verse 14, I thank God that I baptized none of you for Christmas and
gayness, lest any should say that I baptized in my own name.
He said in verse 16, I baptized also the household of Stephanus,
and besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. I don't
remember who I baptized there. And he said, here's why, verse
17, and we're going to spend more time on this next week.
But he makes this statement in verse 17, for Christ sent me
not to baptize. But to preach the gospel. I didn't come to gain converts,
Paul says. That's not what my purpose is. My purpose is not
to, quote, win the lost. If you would ask the average
pastor in Lexington, Kentucky, what's your purpose in preaching
the gospel? You know what they say? To reach
people. To win the lost. Now, am I saying
I don't care about winning the lost? Of course not. Scripture
says, he that wins souls is wise. But if my main purpose in preaching
is to reach people, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going
to modify the message. I'm going to water down the message
in order to gain converts. That's what Miami is. The more
the merrier. The more converts you get, the
better you're doing. So you're going to modify. You're
going to water down. You're going to dilute the message.
Now, Paul said, God didn't send me to get converts. He didn't
send me to win people. He didn't send me to gain a following
or to build a big church. He sent me to declare the gospel. That's it. To simply declare
the truth of the gospel. And I love the way he says this,
not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be
made in that effect. Now, if in my preaching of the
gospel, I use human philosophy and if I use psychology and if
I use manipulation and I try to make the gospel understandable,
appealing to the natural man using wisdom of words, you know
what I do? I take the power out of the gospel. God won't honor
that. It's his naked truth that saves,
not some man's ability to trick somebody or manipulate somebody
into doing something. When you use wisdom of words,
you take away the message of the gospel. He says in verse
18, for the preaching of the cross, now that's our purpose,
the preaching, the declaration of the cross, the doctrine of
the cross, the word of the cross. If you could use one word to
describe the message of this book, I believe the best word
you can use would be the cross. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What that doctrine, and that word preaching is actually the
doctrine, the doctrine of the cross, what the cross teaches.
That's Paul said, my purpose was not to gain converts. It
wasn't to get baptisms. And we're thrilled when somebody
confesses Christ and believers baptism. This is not taking away
from the importance of baptism. You know that. What this is talking
about is our purpose is to declare the truth. of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So this first problem that Paul
addresses in his church was the divisions and the disunity in
this church. And I want to close by showing
you that there's no room for division in the church. There's
no room for differences of opinion regarding the doctrine of the
cross. Now, I've got four statements
I want to make in closing. It's probably going to take me
about ten minutes to close, so I don't think it's going to take a minute.
I've got plenty of time. First, if we are believers, we all, without any exception
to the rule, we all have the same teacher. We just read that,
as a matter of fact. Turn over to John, chapter six.
I was reading, you read this. I want to look at a few scriptures
to verify this. John chapter 6, verse 46. Or verse 45, I'm sorry. John chapter
6, verse 45. It is written in the prophets,
Old Testament scriptures, and these are the words of the Lord
Jesus. Remember, quoting a passage from the Old Testament. And they
shall be all taught of God. We have the same teacher. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me. Look in John
chapter 8, verse 43. The Lord asked this question. Why do you not understand my
speech? Even because you cannot, you lack the ability to hear
my word. You are of your father the devil,
and the lust of your father you'll do. You know, the way the Lord
talked, sometimes I read this, the way he talked, I mean, he
says these fellas, your daddy's the devil. That's strong language,
isn't it? Your daddy's the devil. He says,
if God were your father, you'd love me. In verse 42, but he
says in verse 44, you're of your father, the devil and the lust
of your father, you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning
and abode not in the truth because there's no truth in him. When
he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own for he's a liar and the
father of it. And because I tell you the truth.
You believe me not. Which of you convinces me of
sin? And if I say the truth. Why do
you not believe me? Isn't that a good question? Well, he answers it. He that's
of God, heareth God's words. Every one of them. He says, You
therefore hear them not, because you're not of God. Look in John
chapter 10, verse 24. Then came the Jews round about
and said unto them, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you
and you believe not. The works that I do in my father's
name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not because you're
not of my sheep, as I said unto you. He doesn't say you're not
my sheep because you don't believe. He says you don't believe because
you're not of my sheep. And then he says, my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me,
every one of them. There are those who have been
taught by Luther and Calvin. There are those who have been
taught by Wesley and Arminius. There are those who have been
taught by Spurgeon. There are those who have been
taught by Billy Graham. And there are those who have
been taught by God. Now, if God has taught me, And
if God has taught you, we have the same teacher, don't we? No debate about that. OK, here's
the second thing I want to say. If we're believers, if God has
been our teacher, we have been taught the same thing. He does
not teach one man something and another man something that contradicts
that, does he? He shall guide you into all What? Truth. He shall guide you. When he has come, he'll convince
the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. Same subject.
Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness,
because I go to my father. Of judgment, because the prince
of this world is judged. He doesn't teach one person one
thing and something else to somebody else that contradicts it. Not
God. He teaches everybody the same
thing. Thirdly, if God has taught us
and he's taught us the same thing, you know what that means? That
means we believe the same thing. There's a true agreement. Titus
1.4 speaks of the common faith. Hebrews 10.23 says, let us hold
the confession of our faith without wavering. We believe the same
thing. We believe the Bible's the Word
of God, don't we? You really believe that? You got a problem
with that? The Bible's the inspired Word of God. I'm more sure of
that than anything else. And I can't prove it, but I believe
it. I love what Donnie Bell said.
He said, the Bible said that Jonah swallowed the whale. I
believe it. I would too. The Bible said that.
I believe the Word of God. We believe All word agreement
here. Christ's righteousness is the
only righteousness. We believe that, don't we? We
believe His shed blood is the only sin payment. We believe
that salvation is all of grace. We believe that. We really do
believe the same thing. And in reality, if we're believers,
we all have the same experience. Different circumstances, perhaps,
but the same experience, my experience is no different than your experience.
Now, let me let me show you this from scripture. Turn to First
Timothy. Verse 16. First Timothy, chapter
one, verse 16. How be it for this cause I obtain
mercy, this is Paul speaking, that in me first Jesus Christ
might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Now that's us he's
talking about. That's us. Paul says I'm a pattern, I'm
a mold. Now, you've got a mold, you pour something in it and
it takes the shape of that mold, doesn't it? The same experience. Paul says, I'm the pattern. My
experience is the experience of every single believer without
exception. Now, what was Paul's experience?
Look up in verse 15. Here it is. It's so simple, and
this is what is so beautiful about it. He says in verse 15,
this is a faithful saying. and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I am chief. Now, here is my experience. I'm a sinner. And I'm not saying that feeling
good about it. I'm a sinner and I hate it. And here's my experience. I'm
a sinner. That's the best thing I can say about myself. And Christ
saved me. That's my experience. One like
one fellow said, I did the sin and he did the saving. Is that
your experience? That's the experience of every
believer. I'm a sinner. He's the Savior. Christ saved us. And our daily
experience is the same. You know, we were in Mexico last
week, and one of the hymns we were singing in Spanish, and
I knew the hymn. They were singing, I need thee,
oh, I need thee. And it was Necessitico. I don't know how to say it, but
they were singing the same thing we sing. And they were singing
it in Spanish, but they meant the same thing. Oh, how I need
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's my daily experience. I beseech you by the name of
the Lord Jesus. That you all speak the same thing
we do, don't we? That there be no divisions among
you. There's no room for a division with believers. No room. We believe the same thing. But that you be perfectly joined
together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Let's pray.