Foundations: Common Experience of Grace

Introduction to Church Unity and the Foundation Analogy

0:04 The following address was delivered at the 1990 New England Baptist Family Conference.

0:16 Now, as we did last evening, I want to read a portion of the Word of God to which reference will be made in the course of our study, but I think it good for us to have our minds impacted with the Word of God itself before we begin the second in our series of studies on the very vast and vital subject of church unity. Will you follow, please, in your Bibles, excuse me, as I read Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 6.

0:54 Ephesians 4, verses 1 through 6. I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called, with all lowliness and meekness. With all lowliness and meekness. With all lowliness and meekness.

1:17 With all long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

1:57 As we come to this second study of our subject on church unity, let me, particularly for the sake of those of you who have joined us today or have come in just for the evening session, take just a few moments and try to, as it were, flash upon the peaks of those truths that we considered, in our initial study last evening. By way of introduction, I sought to identify precisely what we will be studying in these four messages. And by church unity, I mean that unity that comes to expression in specific local congregations and not church union, the great goal of the modern ecumenical movement, or church cooperation, the goal of each and every single Church that is seeking to act according to the norms of Scripture. Then, having isolated the field of our concern, I sought to address the three broad categories in setting, as it were, the field for our further study. I laid before you a working definition and description of church unity. Then we considered the attachment,

3:17 attainability of church unity, and thirdly, the importance of church unity. And if you are convinced by the portions of the Word of God that we studied last night of the importance and the attainability of church unity, what must be done to experience that unity? How can we, by the power of redemptive grace, attain and maintain as the prevailing climate of our churches a fundamental oneness and harmony of understanding, affection, purpose, and activity, while unashamedly maintaining and manifesting all the legitimate expressions of diversity and individuality which do not destroy the unity of God? How can we preserve that unity, but rather enhance it? And that will be the question that we take up tonight and in the subsequent studies together. I trust convinced of the importance and the attainability, and having a somewhat comprehensive, though not technical, definition of that unity,

4:38 we are now prepared to address the question, how shall we attain it, and how shall we attain it in the future? And in seeking to sort out the biblical witness in answer to that question, I suggest that you may find it helpful, as I do, to think in terms of the unity of the church attained and maintained in terms of the foundation of a building and its superstructure. In the attaining and the maintenance of church unity, there are certain things that lie at the very foundation of that unity. Without it, there can be no substantial church unity in the superstructure of our church life. If that foundation is properly laid, there may be times when a shingle or two are blown off the roof of that unity. Occasionally, a window may be blown out, and even a wall may be broken out. But if the foundation is firmly laid and sustained by the Word and the Spirit, then we can always tack back on a new shingle. We can replace a window. We can even repair and patch up a caved-in wall. But in the language of the psalmist, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? And we may well be tasteful to the foundation of that unity.

6:15 ask, if the foundation is never laid, what will the superstructure do with the first little gust of wind? And you remember from our Lord's closing illustration in the Sermon on the Mount how foolish it is to build any structure of any kind in the realm of religion that does not have proper foundations. For sooner or later, the winds which have their origin in remaining human sin, in the pressure of the world, or in the machinations of a wicked devil, will huff and will puff, and they will surely blow our house down unless it has biblical foundations. And so tonight we're going to concentrate on answering the question, how shall we attain and maintain church unity with reference to the foundation of church unity? And I suggest to you that the foundation of church unity is made up of the reinforced concrete that has three commodities, as reinforced concrete has gravel and it has cement and iron or steel rods. Those are the three basic commodities that

7:44 we're building. But how can we find out the reinforced concrete that constitute the walls of this rather strange and exotic building in which we meet? Well, so likewise, there are three basic elements to the reinforced concrete which constitute the foundational structure of biblical church unity. I'll name the elements and then we shall look at them one by one from the Word of God.

The First Foundation: Common Experience of God's Grace

8:14 experience of the grace of God. Secondly, common convictions regarding the truth of God. And thirdly, a common commitment to the great concerns of God. So we have a common experience of the grace of God as the first element in true biblical church unity. It is interesting that in every pivotal passage where the unity of the people of God is the focus either of the assertions of the passage or the exhortations of the passage, it is assumed that those to whom those assertions or exhortations come possess in common an experience of the application of grace. God's grace by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. There is not one explicit passage

9:23 on the subject of church unity, to my knowledge, anywhere in the New Testament that does not assume or explicitly state some element of the application of God's almighty transforming grace. It is a common denominator of those to whom these assertions or these exhortations come. Now I did not say we must have a common experience of conversion. The ways of God in turning sinners from darkness to light are as diverse as are the faces that are present. And in conversion, there is no distinction between the face of God and the face of the face of the Holy Spirit. There is a distinct pattern that God follows with all of his people. There is a marvelous and fascinating variety of the ways of God in the work of converting sinners to himself.

The Natural State: Enmity and Works of the Flesh

10:29 But when we dig beneath all of the cosmetic elements of their conversion experience, we find at the base of it a common experience of the saving grace of God. Now, why is this common experience of the saving grace of God the most fundamental element in any true biblical church unity? Well, let me seek to answer that question, first of all, by reminding you of what we are by nature in relationship to one another. In Romans 8-7 we read, Romans 8-7 The carnal mind is enmity against God.

11:14 Romans 8-7 The carnal mind is enmity against God. Romans 8-7 For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. In other words, the prevailing disposition of every man's heart and spirit, that's what it means, the carnal mind, the prevailing disposition of every man's heart and spirit by nature is not at enmity with God.

11:44 That enmity with God, Paul says it is enmity itself. The carnal mind is enmity against God. The whole prevailing disposition is one large clenched fist in the face of God. That's it. The carnal mind is enmity against God. Now how does it show it is enmity? For it is not subject to the law. Romans 8-7. Romans 8-7. Romans 8-7. Romans 8-7. Romans of God. You see its enmity is manifested not in what the lips may say concerning God, but in the prevailing disposition of the will to the authority of God as manifested in the law of God. The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. It has no power to renovate itself from enmity to amity, from

12:55 a clenched fist to an open hand. It cannot be left to itself. It was conceived enmity. It shall live enmity. It shall die enmity. It shall go out into hell enmity and remain enmity forever and forever and forever. Now, what is the summation of the law of God? It terminates upon two great spheres of duty. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength, and, the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. As God is to be the supreme object of religious devotion with

13:42 no rival, so I am. I am to have this disposition of love to my neighbor that is equal to the love that I natively have to myself. And Paul, in commenting on that duty in Romans further on, says love works no ill to his neighbor. And so, if the very disposition of our hearts, the prevailing bent of mind and spirit, is one clenched fist in the face of God, then, if the very disposition of our hearts, the prevailing bent of mind and spirit, is one clenched fist in the face of God, and it manifests itself by refusal to be submissive to the law of God, then, obviously, all men by nature, when it comes to their relationship to God, do not love Him, do not serve Him, do not delight in Him. The thing we heard about this morning is boredom personified worship. There is nothing as it is a greater bore to the unregenerate man than the thought of worship, especially if it is spiritual, biblical, spiritual, spiritual, spiritual, spiritual, spiritual. But likewise, there is no heart to love one's neighbor as oneself. There is no heart to

14:56 care for my neighbor's needs in a manner equal to my natural disposition to care for my own. And therefore, when Paul describes the works of the flesh, the kind of lifestyle that comes out of those who have a carnal mind that is enterprising, the kind of lifestyle that comes out of those who have a carnal mind that is enterprising, the kind of lifestyle that comes out of those who have a carnal mind that is enterprising, the kind of lifestyle that comes out of those who have a carnal mind that is enterprising, the kind of lifestyle that comes out of those who have a carnal mind that is enterprising, the kind of lifestyle that comes out of those who have a carnal mind that is enterprising, the kind of lifestyle that comes out of those who have a carnal mind that is enterprising, the kind of lifestyle that comes out of those who have a carnal mind that is enterprising, the kind of lifestyle that comes out of those who have a carnal mind that is enterprising, the kind of lifestyle that comes out of those who have a carnal mind that is enterprising, the kind of lifestyle that comes out of those who have a carnal mind that is enterprising, the kind of lifestyle that comes out of those who have a carnal mind that is enterprising, the kind of lifestyle of peace, of harmony, of unity. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest.

15:39 They are open and plain for everyone to see. You don't need to drive 75 miles down dirt roads and have a map that leads you to some obscure place to get a little glance at the works of the flesh. They are manifest everywhere. In all circumstances and situations, they are manifest.

16:01 And what are they? I'm sorry, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, sins of sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, sins that are a blatant expression of ungodliness and irreligion, a turning from the true God to worship false gods. But now notice.

16:28 Relationships. Relationships to others. Strife. Relationships to others.

16:34 Jealousies. Relationships to others. Wraths. Relationships to others.

16:40 Factions. Relationships to others. Divisions. Relationships to others.

16:47 Parties or heresies. Views of truth that separate rather than unite. Relationships to others. Envyings.

16:58 Now do you see? Do you see where the predominant emphasis falls in this text of Scripture? It is not a mishandling of the Word of God to say that the Holy Spirit has declared to us that the primary manifestations of unregenerate human nature are found at the level of interpersonal relationships. Why?

17:25 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. And though it may not be bold enough to say that the carnal mind is enmity against God, and though it may not be bold enough to say that the carnal mind is enmity against God, and though it may not be bold enough to curse the God whom it cannot see, and though it may not be bold enough to curse the God whom it cannot see, it will curse the creatures made in His image and do it with impunity. And therefore the Apostle focuses upon these sins. And it's interesting, he goes on to say that anyone who lives in anyone or combination of these sins as a way of life, hear me carefully now, not as an occasional sin into which one falls.

18:00 or a heart disposition against which one is wrestling. But anyone who lives in any one or combination of these things as his lifestyle is not a child of God. Look at the text. Having completed the list, he says, Of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practice such things shall lose a few rewards at the beam of seed of Christ.

18:40 That wretching is not for me. They who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If you live a lifestyle characterized by fornication, by lechery, by uncleanness, you will not enter the kingdom. Truly true.

19:10 If you live a lifestyle characterized by envy, by strife, by jealousy, by wrath, by divisions, you'll perish with the lecherous whoremonger and the shameless fornicator and the unblushing idolater.

19:31 Now, what in all does this, what in the world does all of this have to do with the doctrine of church unity? Well, I hope you begin to see what it has to do. I've said that the...

The Transformed State: New Heart and Fruit of the Spirit

19:39 The first element, the first ingredient in the foundation materials of biblical church unity is a common experience of the saving grace of God. Now, what kind of people does that grace come to? It comes to people who have carnal minds, enmity against God, who manifest that enmity by refusal to be subject to the law of God, the cardinal expression of which, at the horizontal level, comes out in the friction, the animosity, the envying, the bitterness, the jealousies in interpersonal relationships. Now, what happens when God in grace effectually lays hold of a sinner and through the preaching of the gospel applied to his heart by power, God secretly but powerfully takes out the heart of stone and gives that sinner a heart of flesh? And the first being...

20:39 The beatings of that heart of flesh are the beatings of repentance and faith and faith and repentance. We might call repentance the oracles and the end of faith the ventricles of a newly implanted spiritual heart. And any heart that's a living heart that pulses life through a living human being will have both sets of chambers pumping. And when God gives a new heart, a new heart, it's first beats are the beats of repentance and faith and faith and repentance.

21:17 That faith and repentance will manifest themselves almost immediately, not only in the turning from sin and the laying hold of Christ, but now as we read in the next verses in Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit will begin to be manifested. And what is that? That fruit, love. Love to God, love to the creature, joy, peace.

21:47 But now look how many again focus on horizontal relationships, long suffering. What's that? That's when you suffer long with someone who makes you suffer.

22:01 Suffering be shown in any other relationship than one in which someone makes you suffer. Maybe they make you suffer by their bad breath. Chronic halitosis. Dragon's mouth.

22:13 Morning. Noon. And night. That's a form of suffering that comes in terms of your olfactory nerves.

22:24 It's not pleasant.

22:27 But if you're a child of God, long suffering. In interpersonal relationships, when we confront those who in terms of something about their person or their actions make us suffer inwardly or outwardly, we suffer long. There is kindness, the opposite of harshness. Goodness.

22:47 Goodness, the opposite of indifference to human need. Faithfulness, trustworthiness. Meekness, the opposite of self-centered assertiveness. Not demanding my rights.

23:01 Not demanding the vindication of my name and my cause. Do you see how many of the fruit of the Spirit focus on interpersonal relationships? And when the Spirit of God comes to dwell in the hearts of those whom God has given to us, we are not going to be able to do that. We are not going to be able to do that.

23:17 We are not going to be able to do that. We are not going to be able to do that. When God is effectually called, He never comes to dwell as a dormant, hidden force. He comes to dwell as a transforming power.

23:29 That's why Paul goes on to say in Romans 8, after he says in verse 8, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. He says, but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. So be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

23:50 You're no longer dominated by those characteristics Paul calls the works of the flesh. If the Spirit dwells in you, you've been brought into the fundamental realm of the operations of the Spirit. And in that realm, in place of enmity and wrath and strife and factions, there is long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, and these other graces that do not grow out of Adamic soil, but grow out of the heart blessed by the transforming work of the Spirit of God.

Scriptural Proof: John 17 and Ephesians 4

24:34 So then, when appeals for unity go forth in Scripture, the assumption of the scriptural writers is that those to whom the appeal comes have experience, this mighty, transforming grace of God. They have a common experience of the saving grace of God, which is the baseline, which is the slab of the foundation of their unity in Christ. Now, having asserted that and shown the rationale for it, let me demonstrate it in three pivotal passages on the subject of unity. As I tell my people all the time, he who asserts from the pulpit must prove. Never believe anything because it's asserted. No matter how forcefully or convincingly it's asserted, he who asserts must prove.

25:36 And that burden is upon me. And I ask you to turn now to our Lord's prayer for the unity of His people in John 17. John 17. As we saw last night, four great strands of concern, in this prayer.

25:53 Our Lord prays for the preservation, sanctification, glorification of all His people, but He prays for their unification. And that prayer for unification comes to its most focused expression in the latter part of the chapter, John 17. And beginning in verse 23, I in them, thou in me, that they may, I'm sorry, verse 21, that they may all be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may be in us, that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which you've given me, I've given unto them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, thou in me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovest them, even as thou lovest me. But now, who are these people that He's praying for? These people that they may be one.

26:56 What is their common religious experience? Well, the Lord has described it. Notice, He says, first of all, they are part of the number given to Him in the great multitude whom no man can number out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue, and nation known as the elect of God. Verse 2, even as you gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given Him, He should give eternal life.

27:32 His prayer begins by describing His people as those who were given to Him as a divine deposit that He might impart to them eternal life. And what was that life that they had come to possess? Verse 3, and this is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only true God, and Him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ. They are God's elect.

28:02 They are those who have come to a saving acquaintance with God the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Furthermore, they are described in verse 6 as those to whom Christ has disclosed the very being and character of God, I manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world. They have had a saving revelation made to them of the glory of God reflected in the face of Jesus Christ. Christ has done something as He did to Peter when Peter responded concerning the identity of Christ.

28:45 Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Thou art indeed the express image of the Father. He says, Peter, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you. You didn't get this because you were catechized.

28:58 You didn't get this because you were merely well instructed. You got this because there was a supernatural revelatory work by the ministry of My Father through the Spirit. Furthermore, they are described at the end of verse 6, and they have kept Thy word. They have kept the word that was delivered through the Lord Jesus.

29:25 They have embraced Christ as their prophet. They have cherished, they hold as a treasure the word of God through the Incarnate Word. Now they know that all things whatsoever You have given Me are from Thee. They have embraced from the heart the true identity of Christ.

29:49 He is not Michael the Archangel, according to the heresy of the Russellites. He is the Son of the Father, to whom the Father has delivered in His messianic mission all authority in heaven and upon earth. They have known that whatsoever You have given Me, the things You have given Me are from Thee, for the words which You gave Me I have given unto them, and they have received them. You see, he is describing a saving experience of the grace of God.

30:25 Now it is for these people that he prays that they may be won. And frankly it angers me when the modern ecumenical movement that thumbs its nose at 99% will take this one phrase out of the end of John 17 and make it their whole religion that they may be won. Oh, now as they are doing down in Trinidad where our dear brother Amrish Samarath labors, the ecumenical movement is as bold it wants to make the Hindu priests won and the Roman Catholic priests won with all evangelicals and Protestants that they all may be won. Didn't Jesus pray that? Ah, but the question, who is the they? Who is the they?

31:24 The they are those given to Jesus by the Father whom He says are not of the world. A select, distinct group given to Him by the Father. A group who have come to a saving knowledge of the Father and of His Son. A group who have had a supernatural revelation made in their hearts of who Christ is, sent by the Father.

31:54 Those who have been transformed from rebels into willing subjects so that their minds embrace the words of Christ as the very words of God. And they keep them and they treasure them. That's the they. And anyone else doesn't fit in this prayer.

32:11 Only the they described by Jesus and then the they that shall come to the same experience. How? Through their word. Not only for them, but for those who shall believe on Me through their word.

32:25 And what was the apostolic word? It was the word that preached these very same truths which were the instrument of their own entrance into life. You see, there can be no true unity at the church level unless there is a common experience of the saving grace of God. That's the emphasis of John 17.

32:54 It's the emphasis of the passage I read in your hearing in introducing our message tonight. Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. Notice when the apostle moves from his more densely didactic or teaching portion of the epistle.

33:15 Notice I said more densely. I don't like this splitting up. Ephesians 1 to 3. Doctrine Ephesians 4 to 6.

33:21 Exhortation. God doesn't split up the things. Look at that neatly. There is a wealth of exhortation in the first three chapters.

33:30 There's a wealth of doctrine in the last three. But there is a marked shift of dominant emphasis. And the marked shift begins in chapter 4. And the dominant emphasis is exhortation buttressed by doctrinal realities and glorious doctrinal truths.

33:48 But now he says, I beseech you, the prisoner in the Lord, to walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called with all lowliness and meekness. Here's our word again. With long suffering, forbearing one another in love, giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Here is an explicit exhortation to foster at the level of conscious spiritual endeavor this matter of church unity.

34:25 Do you see that in the text? Diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is an exhortation to a conscious, diligent spiritual effort to maintain spiritual unity in the church. But now notice on what it is based.

34:48 There is one body, one Spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling. He says, every one of you to whom I give this exhortation has been a subject of the effectual calling of God the Father through the Gospel. You to whom I say, diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit, I base my exhortation for the building of the superstructure of church unity upon the foundation of a common experience of the saving grace of God. You were all called in one hope of your calling. No matter how you may have differed in your entrance into the kingdom, this you all have in common, one sovereign order, one earth, one God, one life, and one soul. Nothing is power but God.

36:02 And nothing is peace but God's love. Nothing is power but God's love. The power of your life is to be in union with God. To have faith that you may live in unity with Jesus Christ, His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, first Corinthians one and verse nine.

36:17 What happened to these people? Well, read Ephesians 2. They were all dead in trespasses and sins. the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who, energeo, who is actively working in the sons of disobedience, Paul says, among whom we all had our manner of living in time past, just as we had a common experience in our spiritual death, in our spiritual bondage to the world, and to our carnal appetites, and to the devil. So he says, but God, but God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead, hath quickened us together with Christ, for by grace ye have been saved, and raised us up together with Christ, and made us to sit in heavenly places. In Christ, for by grace ye have been saved, by faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast, for we are his workmanship,

37:34 created anew in union with Christ Jesus on two good works, which he hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. That's calling. That's Paul's own brief dissertation on effectual calling. It's God's work, taking dead sinners, making them alive, uniting them to his Son, bringing them to repentance and faith, making them new creatures, ordaining that they should walk in specific works that he has marked out beforehand on their behalf.

38:12 So when he comes to chapter four, and says now, give diligence, work at fostering, developing, increasing, maintaining your local church unity, he's assuming they have a common experience of the saving grace of God. You see, he's not assuming they all could bring out their decision card and waive it.

38:44 He's not assuming they all had a place written in the fly leaf of the Bible where they recorded the time they walked an aisle. They've got churches full of people. The decision cards and dates and the fly leafs of their Bibles, who are at one another's throats.

39:02 When I was an evangelist in a traveling ministry for some five years, and went to evangelical churches up and down this country and some into Canada, I found church after church that had a history for decades of disruptions and factions and splits and all the rest. What lay at the heart of all of those problems? I'll tell you what lay at the heart of it. It was the chickens coming home to roost from decisional, cheap evangelism.

39:36 Can there be any unity? There is still a clenched fist before God and an insubmissive heart to the law of God. So can there be a serious effort to love one another and suffer long with someone's dragon's breath? And suffer long with someone's quirk?

40:00 And suffer long with someone's quirk? And suffer long with someone's quirk? And suffer long with someone's quirk? And suffer long with someone's quirk?

40:02 And someone's difficult personality? And someone's abrasive manner? How can there be any suffering long when there's still the clenched fist? And the root of all the horrible manifestations of the absence of the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace is this.

40:24 There is no common experience of the grace of God. There has been no real effectual calling. And because of it, there is really no peace. hope to build a superstructure of church unity until there is a dismantling of all the empty profession, and by the grace of God, seeing people brought to true, vital, saving experience in union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Scriptural Proof: Philippians 2 and God's Work in Believers

40:57 Now, I said we'd give a third passage in which this is evident, and that third passage is Philippians chapter 2. So, Philippians chapter 2, great passage on church unity. What am I trying to prove with these passages? My basic thesis, that in all of them, there is an assumption that people who are involved, either described as being united or prayed for in terms of unity, as in John 17, or exhorted to unity, that they have a common experience.

41:35 That they have a common experience of the grace of God. Well, here in Philippians, as we saw last night, Paul gives his first great exhortation to unity in chapter 1, in verse 27, but he gives an even greater one in chapter 2, in verse 1. If there's any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship in the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, make full my joy. And what will make his joy full?

42:05 Not that they pray. Not that they pray that he get a release from a Roman prison. But that word come back to Paul that they've been released from anything that would undermine their unity. Make full my joy that you be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, doing nothing, nothing through faction or vainglory, nothing in a church business meeting, nothing in deciding whether you will or will not refurbish the church, nothing when decisions are made about what color the walls should be painted, whether or not a certain person ought to be supported as a missionary, whether or not this or that, nothing, nothing, nothing done through strife, nothing done through vainglory, done out of a motive of promoting yourself and your own opinions and your own feelings, but in lowliness of mind, each counting other better than himself, not looking. And he says, And he says, And he says, I tell you, those are stringent demands. Why does Paul dare to make them with any hope that they'll be fulfilled? I'll tell you why.

43:20 Because he could say what he did in chapter 1 and verse 6. Look at it. Being confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it. Not only that.

43:36 Not only that. Not only that. Not at the day of Jesus Christ, but until the day of Jesus Christ. Having begun it, he's going to carry it on and he's going to consummate it.

43:48 And if he ain't carried it, begun it, and he ain't going to consummate it.

43:58 He said, I'm confident, absolutely confident, that what I've seen in you Philippians has no explanation. But Almighty God's been messing around in grace. He's broken in by grace. Furthermore, talk about a man confident of the grace of God.

44:16 Look what he says in chapter 2.

44:19 Further on in this very chapter, he says, so then, verse 12, my beloved, even as you obey, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation in the context that has application to the exhortation just given. And the great example of one who lived that way. Even the Lord Jesus.

44:43 He said, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Why? For it is God who is working in you Philippians, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. He was confident that Almighty God was as energetically sane.

45:05 Greek verb used there as he used in Ephesians 2. The devil energetically worked in you when you were a son. The disobedience. Almighty God energetically works in you, both to will, to choose, and to perform, to have the ability to do the things that please him.

45:28 You see, Paul could give such an exhortation to a high standard of church unity. Why? Because he was convinced that they had this in common. A vital, God-brought, supernatural experience.

45:44 The experience of the saving grace of God. Now, was Paul so foolish as to think there may not have been a hypocrite or two in the Philippian church? Of course not.

45:58 But at the time of the writing, they were such clever hypocrites that no one knew that they were. And the visible church walking by the rule of scripture should have none in its ranks as the ordinary pattern of membership, but truly regenerate people. And the most clever of hypocrites, whom only God can detect.

46:22 So he can write in the judgment of charity as though it were true of all of the church that these things were the realities of their spiritual experience. Now, I don't want to label the point, but the Bible says at the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established. I've brought forward the witnesses. I hope I've convinced your judgment that if there is to be a foundation to support, true, biblical church unity, the slab of that foundation must be a common experience of the saving grace of God.

Application: Self-Examination for Church Hoppers

47:01 Now, I want to apply this principle, and I don't care if I get to the other two. Brethren, this foundation is so vital, if I need to split this up into two messages, I'm determined not to rush through material, but to deliver my soul. If this is true, then this may explain why some of you can never fit, in any church, no matter where you go.

47:25 You only choose churches that are orthodox in doctrine, and maybe even reformed in doctrine, but you aren't there long before you don't fit. Once you begin to get close enough to smell someone's dragon's breath, you've got problems.

47:42 Once you get close enough to see the things that will demand suffering long with brethren in their faults and in their weaknesses, once you get close enough, realize there are people that are rather opinionated and forward, and you will need to yield to them and not meet their forwardness with an equal and even more forceful forwardness, nothing done through strife or vainglory, each counting other better than themselves. And you've become a veritable church hopper, not because you can't find a place where there is a commitment to truth and a commitment to walk by the rule of Scripture. Maybe the problem is, friend, you don't have the dynamics essential to fit in. Maybe you're still lost and dead in your sin, and your clenched fist does not show itself primarily in rejecting biblical doctrine, but in your inability to love at the practical level of known relationships in a visible, concrete assembly of God's people, real, imperfect saints. Maybe that's just the way it is. Maybe that's just your problem.

48:59 Maybe someone who ought to go back to his room tonight and say, Lord, could it be that the reason you brought me to this conference was to show me what I'd never considered would be the problem? The problem is me, Lord!

49:16 My heart has never been transformed. My heart is basically a jealous, factious, selfish, insensitive, unloving, impatient heart. But then I want to make...

Application: Maintain Pure Gospel Preaching

49:32 I want to make three very pointed applications, particularly to the leaders of the churches, and they can't lead if people don't follow, so it's an exhortation to all of you as well. Dear brethren, I beg you, I beg you, if you have any concern for church unity, maintain the purity and the Spirit-anointed proclamation of the full-orbed biblical gospel in your pulpit. Maintain the purity and the Spirit-anointed proclamation of the gospel in your pulpit. What do I mean by the purity?

50:15 I mean a gospel that sets forth God in His holiness, man in His sinfulness, God in His inflexible justice, man in His culpability and hell-deservingness, God in the glory of God. And I want you to please repent, to understand and to receive this gospel. And believe it will be a gospel that will있는ance in you, not only in you. For God has sent it, a covenant of love, sending His Son for the primary, not exclusive, but the primary purpose, that He might bring us to God in a righteous way.

50:47 The gospel which is the power of God unto salvation according to Paul in Romans 1, 16, is the gospel which has as its central declaration, for therein is revealed a righteousness of God from flight. That is the revelation of Jesus Christ. The salvation of the�org, when the gospel is revealed. From faith to faith, the gospel is the power of God because it alone can answer the question, how can sinful, hell-deserving man be right with God and God still be right?

51:20 The heart of the gospel is not an answer to how to get your act together and how to get yourself integrated to yourself or how to get your family together. No, the gospel is a declaration of how wretched, hell-deserving sinners can get right with God and still have God be right. That's the great and glorious truth of the gospel. And then keep sounding and expounding the old notes of Acts 20, 21, repentance toward God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

51:54 Paul said these were the two great pivots on which his ministry turned. Repentance. Repentance towards God. Keep insisting that if sinners would be saved, they must reckon with God, His claims, His rights, His authority, His glory.

52:12 And they dare not reckon with that God apart from casting themselves upon the mercy of a person who is the Lord. He's on the throne. He is Jesus, the incarnate God. He is Christ.

52:25 He is the anointed prophet, priest, and king. And they've got to have dealings in the whole mouth. And with the whole Christ. Brethren, I fear that some of the things for which some of you paid a dear price 20 years ago, you've begun to assume your present people really understand and are ready to spill blood for it.

52:44 Don't assume it.

52:47 We are on the threshold of the horrible danger of the second generation in our churches. And the great danger of the second generation is that we assume that the truths for which we shed blood, they both understand. And are willing to shed blood for it. Don't count on it.

53:05 I find it very, very humbling to ask some very simple questions and realize in spite of all of my labors, in the study, on my knees, in the pulpit, there's an awful lot not getting through. And the day our churches cease to be marked by clear, incisive, spirit-anointed gospel preaching, where the great issues, of God, and sin, and righteousness, and imputed righteousness, imputed sin to the Son of God, repentance, and faith, and the necessity of a changed life. When those notes are imminent, don't be surprised if church unity begins to be shaken. In an effort to keep things peaceful, you are causing fissures. In the foundation.

54:17 My brethren, I beg you, don't call to the experts who want to be. Go home and preach a series of sermons on repentance and faith. Like you're preaching to ten-year-olds. You'd be amazed.

Application: Maintain Biblical Standards for Church Admission

54:38 You'd be amazed at the response. Our second exhortation is, if we love the unity of the church, and we're convinced from these portions that the foundation of that unity is a common experience of the grace of God, and the grace of God is most likely to operate where the gospel of God is preached most purely and powerfully, then we'll want to not only maintain the purity and power of gospel preaching, but we will determine to maintain a biblical standard for admission into the visible church. We will determine to maintain a biblical standard of admission into the visible church. And what is the biblical standard?

55:23 That men and women are able to give a credible profession of their faith. That is, they are able to articulate sufficient amounts of fundamental saving doctrine to believe that their professed faith has enough content to be real faith. There is no such thing as saving faith without content upon which the faith terminates. There is no such thing as saving faith without content upon which the faith terminates.

55:54 There is a plan that can be realized in the 3rd course and itcill in Lessons 2 and 3 It's got to be more than that poor chap I met years ago in a parking lot and I was witnessing him somewhere in the South and I said, do you believe on Christ? He said, oh, yeah, I believe on Christ. I said, what do you believe about him? I believe he's good.

56:10 I said, run that by again. What do you believe about Christ? I believe he's good. What else do you believe about him?

56:17 Well, nothing much, I believe he's for good. Somebody led that man to think that was salmon faith. All he knew about Christ is he's for good. Now, how did that happen?

56:30 That didn't happen overnight. Church member in good standing. Why? He walked down an aisle.

56:36 You believe in Christ? I believe in Christ. Good. It was a credible profession.

56:45 Did he know enough about Christ that there could be faith in Christ as sin bearer and divinely appointed substitute? Dying the death he should have died, living the life he could not but ought to have lived. A credible profession involves sufficient content in the judgment of charity to believe there can be true faith. And it also means sufficient testimony and manifestation of the transforming power of the gospel.

57:18 We don't expect people to be full-grown men. But if a man comes with his arm locked on his paramour and says, I'm applying for church membership. Why? I believe God has saved me.

57:29 He has? What makes you think so? And he gives a glory. This account of his sin.

57:33 He can trace it all the way back to Adamic solidarity. And he can open up the doctrine of solidarity in Adam and his condemnation in Adam and his inbred, uncreated sinfulness. And he can quote all the texts. I tell you, you'd think you'd listen to Hodge talking in a 20th century Americanese.

57:55 And when he's all done, you say, fellow, what did your faith do for you? Oh, it made me happy. Oh, it do anything else for you? Well, nothing much else.

58:02 Who's this woman? Oh, that's my girlfriend. Oh, it's your girlfriend. What kind of relationship you got?

58:07 Oh, we really love one another. Oh, you do? Oh, yes. We express it quite frequently in the most intimate way you can.

58:13 You mean you're living together? You're having sexual? Oh, yeah. You have faith in Christ?

58:18 Oh, yeah.

58:22 Would you believe his profession credible?

58:26 And you'd say, no, I'd question the validity of it. All right? Don't make distinction. God doesn't.

58:32 Because God not only says that those who practice fornication shall not enter the kingdom. He says, Those who live in a known pattern of strife, of envies, of jealousies, divisions, party spirit, they shall not enter the kingdom either.

58:50 And if the person coming for that membership interview is known to have a tongue 14 feet long and every bit of it is full of the venom of gossip and ill will,

59:03 if the Holy Ghost is chopped a few feet off that tunnel,

59:08 and if she can't testify or he can't testify that the Holy Ghost, has begun to chop that tongue off or shrink it, that profession is not credible.

59:18 You remember the emphasis Pastor Allen gave this morning? When those people came to John the Baptist and said, What do we do to bring forth fruits meet for repentance? He didn't say, I leave that between you and the Lord. I don't judge men's hearts.

59:31 That's what a lot of people in our day say. Not John. He says, You bringing forth fruit meet for repentance. Hey, you soldiers.

59:41 Every time I pass you, you know what you're always doing? Tell them, Dirty jokes and grousing about your wages. Now stop it.

59:49 Be content with your wages.

59:53 You publicans. You know what you do? You're extorting more than is just. Stop it.

59:58 And until you can demonstrate to me, You have. There's no repentance. There's no baptism. You will not enter this emerging new covenant community.

60:08 And don't stop and say, Ah, but my religious bloodlines are excellent. He says, God can raise up stones and make them into perfect Pharisees. But it's only, The work of grace that changes lovers of sin into lovers of righteousness. And until God's done that, Don't you come to be part of this new community.

60:25 I'm forming for the one who is greater than I, Who's coming after me, The latchet of whose shoes I am unworthy to unloose. Maintain a biblical standard of admission into the visible church. Without it, You are undermining the very foundation of church unity.

Application: Maintain Biblical Standards for Church Continuance

60:46 And I've lived long enough to see what's happened to churches that have lowered the standard. Of admission. No longer is it a credible profession of faith. It's any kind of profession of faith.

61:00 We're so tired of being small. We're so tired of having people mock us for our lack of growth.

61:12 My friends never forget it. I'll never forget when a W Tozer said it either publicly or in a personal conversation. I don't know it. He said, Never forget that cancer is an abnormally fast multiplication of human cells.

61:28 But it's deadly. And the fact that the church is growing may be nothing but a manifestation of spiritual people being brought into the body who will eventually destroy it because they are yet in their sins. And then my third and final exhortation under this head is not only to maintain the purity and spirit. Empowered proclamation.

62:03 The basic truths of the gospel. If you value it, church unity? Maintain a biblical standard of admission into the visible church if you value church unity, but maintain a biblical standard of continuance in the membership of the visible church if you value church unity? How can there be oneness of harmony and harmony of understanding and affection and purpose and activity if you have sons of darkness and sons of light living together in the same fellowship, no longer sons of darkness who are clever hypocrites, as Ananias and Sapphira were until God exposed them? We can't blame Peter and the other apostles for tolerating them. They didn't know. But Paul blames the church at Corinth for tolerating that immoral man because they did know. The Lord doesn't blame the

63:05 Jerusalemite church for tolerating that immoral man because they did know. The Lord doesn't blame the Jerusalemite church for tolerating that immoral man because they did know. The Lord doesn't blame the Jerusalemite church, and Ananias and Sapphira were so clever, their sin was hidden. Only God saw it. And God said, I'll be the church disciplinarian.

63:16 And thank God he doesn't do that too often. He killed them. Fear came upon all. But now Paul does not tell the Corinthians, now you pray that God will kill this man. He said, next time you get together, you cast him out. Nothing about following the steps of Matthew 18. I'm sick and tired of people excusing their lack of moral courage behind Matthew 18 as though it were an inflexible rubric for every situation of church discipline. It is not.

63:49 The subject is the matter of private offenses. If thy brother sinned against thee, nobody else even knows about it, so you don't go blabbing it abroad. You go to him and tell him his fault alone. The knowledge of the sin is only to go as far as the sin itself.

64:03 And only if he will not hear you with a view to gaining him do you take two or three others to bear witness. And if it's dealt with, it doesn't go any further. 1 Corinthians 5 and 2 Thessalonians 3 and Romans 16, 17 and Titus 3, 10 and 11, they envision an entirely different situation. Here the sin is public.

64:25 Here the sin is known. Where it is, he says, when you are gathered together by my Spirit in the name of the Lord Jesus, delivering such a one unto Satan, for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must maintain a biblical standard of continuance in the membership of the church. If we don't, if we don't, we're undermining the very foundation of unity.

64:55 And if we're to have gracious, biblical, realistic standards of continuance in the membership of the church, there must be close, discriminating, applicatory preaching maintained as the standard diet of the people of God. If we should judge ourselves, we should not be judged of the Lord. And where the ministry of the Word brings men week by week in the theater of conscience into direct contact with God, you are much less likely to have deep-seated pockets of hypocrisy and duplicity. But then that close, discriminating, applicatory preaching of the Word must be followed by close, loving, intimate, pastor-flock relationships that we might monitor the progress of our people and know the difference between a true saint struggling with all his might against the dominant, evident, besetting sin and a spurious, professed saint who is utterly indifferent to a closet sin.

66:15 There's a difference between the two.

66:19 The person who does not struggle and mourn over his secret closet sins may well be a hypocrite. Whereas that person has a sin that's evident to all. He knows it and he's struggling and he's crying to God and he's using all the means of grace. Where does he belong?

66:39 In the most warm, loving embrace of the whole flock of God to help him overcome that sin and become more like Christ.

66:49 But where does that sophisticated person who has a heart sin, not known to the people of God, but acknowledged under close, intimate, pastoral scrutiny and loving admonition, where does that person belong if they determine to continue impenitent and indifferent to heart sins? My brother, the Bible says...

67:14 Well, you turn to it. I've just found again, unless people see things with their own eyes so many times, well, preacher said this, preacher said that. But what does the Word of God say? 1 Corinthians 6.

67:30 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Verse 9. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous,

67:53 nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. In the list of all these gross immoralities, God puts revilers. You know what a reviler is? A man or woman guilty of a pattern of abusive, derisive, demeaning, hurtful speech.

68:14 That's a reviler.

68:17 And covetousness, where does that operate? In the heart.

68:22 And God says, reviling is a pattern of life and covetousness as a prevailing disposition of the heart are inconsistent with being in a state of grace.