Foundations: Common Convictions; Commitments

Introduction: Review of Church Unity Foundations

0:04 The following address was delivered at the 1990 New England Baptist Family Conference. Now, if you will turn with me, please, to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Our scripture reading tonight is taken from 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 3.

0:24 And I read from chapter 1, verses 10 through 17.

0:33 Now I beseech you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions, literally schisms, among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been signified unto me concerning you, my brethren, by them that are of the household of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I mean, that each of you, 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 into the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptize none of you, save Crispus and Gaius, lest any man should say that you were baptized into my name.

1:38 And I baptized also the household of Stephanus. Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made void. And then over to chapter 3 and the first nine verses.

2:05 Chapter 3, verse 1. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with meat, for you were not yet able to bear it. Nay, not even now are ye able, for ye are yet carnal.

2:28 For whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are you not carnal, and do you not walk after the manner of men? For when one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are you not men? What then is Apollos, and what is Paul? Ministers through whom ye believed, and each as the Lord gave to him.

2:58 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither is he that planteth anything, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, but each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow laborers, you are God's husbandry, God's building.

3:33 Now we take up this evening the third of our series of studies on the gospel. On the theme of church unity. In our first consideration of this vital subject, I indicated that the precise and limited focus of our study would be that of church unity as it pertains to specific local congregations of God's people. I then proceeded to set before you three lines of developing this thought of church unity.

4:10 A working definition and description of church unity, the attainability of church unity, and the great importance of church unity. Then last night I suggested that the various components which comprise church unity can be helpfully viewed as a house comprised of its foundation and of its superstructure. And the first line of this thought is that it is a house. And the second line of this thought is that it is a house.

4:40 And the third line of this thought is that it is a church. And then we began to consider the foundation of true biblical church unity. And we had time to look at only one of the components or elements in that foundation, namely a common experience of the saving, transforming grace of God. If there is to be anything that can be called church unity, if there is to be anything that can be called church unity, according to the word of God, it will only be realized where a group of hell-deserving sinners have been brought to a common experience of the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. My basic thesis was this, that in every passage where church unity is a major concern, either by way of exhortation intercession or affirmations concerning church unity, it is assumed in such passages that those who are the subjects of this concern have experienced a common experience of the saving grace of God. And then to demonstrate that thesis,

6:05 we looked at portions of John 17, Ephesians chapter 4, and Philippians 1 and 2. Having then established the fact that a common experience of the grace of God is the most fundamental element in real church unity, I then sought to lay before you three crucial implications and applications growing out of that fact. And I sought to underscore that if, if we would know genuine church unity, unity which has as its most fundamental, foundational element a common experience of the grace of God, then we must maintain spirit-anointed preaching of the full-orbed biblical gospel. The great notes of God in His holiness and righteousness, man in his sinfulness and culpability, God in His amazing grace sending His Son for sinners, imputed sin to the Son of God, and the availability of imputed righteousness in the Savior, the necessity and nature of repentance and faith, and the inevitability of a transformed life,

7:30 these notes must never become assumed, nor must their right angles be rounded off, for it is generally in the context of the proclamation of these truths of the full-orbed biblical gospel that God is most likely to bring men to a genuine experience of His saving grace. And then the second implication was this, that we must maintain a biblical standard for admission into the church. If the church begins to be a place of worship, if the church begins to be a society in which there is an unequal yoke of those who are living under the motives and the dynamics of saving grace, and those who merely have a formal attachment to the Christian faith, there can be no true working unity, for what fellowship hath light with darkness? And then thirdly, we must maintain in our churches a climate in which there is a determination that none will remain in the membership who do not continue to walk as visible saints, visible saints in all degrees of growth,

8:56 in varying degrees of struggles with besetting sins. Yes, but nonetheless, those who have the minimal marks of being saved, those who have the minimal marks of being saved, they are visible saints. Well, now we come tonight to consider the second and the third elements in that foundation for true church unity. Not only must there be a common experience of the saving grace of God, but secondly, a common conviction concerning the revealed truth of God, and thirdly, a common commitment to the great concerns.

Common Conviction Concerning Revealed Truth of God

9:37 Amen. Now let us take up then this second element, a common conviction concerning the revealed truth of God. Now you notice I did not say common views. I chose my words deliberately.

9:58 There must be a common conviction concerning the revealed truth of God. For you see, conviction brings within its orbit not only the judgment of the mind, but the persuasion and the commitment of the heart. And church unity is found where God in the midst of regenerate people gives by the Spirit through the Word and a manifold complex of other means which He has ordained, a common conviction concerning the revealed truth of God. a common conviction concerning the revealed truth of God. That is, a group of people will have light in their heads and a willingness to give themselves to the implication of that light in all of its ramifications, even if necessary, to sealing that confession with their own life's blood. Now I'm fully aware that we live in a day of great indifference to and even open hostility to the whole matter of doctrine. We live in a day and are constantly being told

11:25 that doctrine divides. It is love, experience and common causes that unite us. We live in a day in which men, churches, all denominations are pleading with us to forget everything but the most minimal and nebulous doctrinal tenets of the Christian faith and unite on something other than revealed truth. For example, there is the ecumenism of the Charismatic Movement.

Critique of Ecumenism Based on Experience or Causes

12:06 I have never heard it more ably defended or more clearly articulated than by David Duplessis, who is called by Charismatics Mr. Pentecost. And David Duplessis' fundamental thesis is this, that with the onset of the Protestant Reformation, a thick, vast, high, massive wall went up between the visible church, dividing it into Protestants and classic Roman Catholics. His thesis is that for four hundred years, nothing has knocked down that wall.

12:46 But now God has done a new thing. By taking both Roman Catholics and Protestants of all stripes, liberals, people who belong to the fringe cults, as well as mainline denominationalists and evangelicals, He has given them this experience of the baptism in the Spirit with the speaking in tongues. And what that has done is, it has leaped over the wall of doctrine and made men one in the Spirit. And that's why you will find people who have no embarrassment sitting on a platform with Monsignor so-and-so to the right, Bishop so-and-so to the left, a known out-and-out liberal two seats away, and then a man who claims to believe in an inherent Bible and a supernatural Savior and a supernatural salvation, united not in truth, but united in this experience in the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, there are those who say no. We will not have a church unity based upon experience. We'll have church unity based upon the cause of evangelism.

14:05 And while thankful for the moral integrity He has maintained over the decades, and the financial integrity, this has been the cursed legacy that Billy Graham will leave to unborn generations. The notion that if we're concerned to reach the lost, doctrinal distinctions are no longer important. And so we have an evangelistic ecumenicity in which liberals and Roman Catholics and fringe cult groups who can all sit on the same platform and doctrine, Dr. Graham and Louie Palau and a host of lesser men of lesser stature have followed His example. And we are told that, no, we must have a minimal doctrinal platform, because doctrine will divide us and cripple us in the great task of evangelism. Well, many of God's people have escaped the experiential ecumenism that downgrades truth and doctrine, the evangelistic ecumenism, which downgrades truth, and doctrine, and faith, and spiritual work. and doctrine, but they have fallen prey to the cause-oriented ecumenism, the cause of

Error Divides, Not Doctrine

15:24 abortion. So now as Christians we can lock arms with Jews and Roman Catholics and say prayers together, sing hymns together, and deny by that association that is fundamentally religious, the antithesis between truth and error. Dear people, that's the climate in which we live. I'm not setting up straw dummies, but I'm asserting that if we take the Word of God seriously, we will come to the conviction that the foundation of true church unity is not only a common experience of the grace of God. But a common conviction concerning the revealed truth of God. It is not doctrine that divides, it is error that divides. It was error that brought the first division in Eden. God and

16:42 man were one in blessed, unbroken communion. Adam, who is called the son of God, was not of God, not as the eternal Word, the incarnate God-man, but he is called the Son of God by Luke. He was God's direct creation, made a creature who had no existence prior to God forming him out of the dust of the earth and breathing into his nostrils the breath of life and causing him to become living soul. And as long as Adam's mind was in accord with God's mind concerning all reality, God and man were one. God put a test. Of all the trees you may freely eat, but of that tree which is in the midst of the garden you shall not eat of it, for in the day you eat you'll die. The doctrine of that tree is that it will bring death. That's reality.

17:48 That's doctrine. The devil comes with a lie and says, no, the reality is not that that tree will bring death. That tree is the open door to a new dimension of life that God is trying to keep from you. God knows in the day you eat, you shall be as God, knowing good and evil. There is a good that God is withholding from you, Adam, and that good is good. There is a good that God is withholding from you, Adam, and that good is the good That good is the attainment of a dimension of knowledge that God has and you don't have. No wonder Jesus said, Ye are of your father the devil. He was a liar and a murderer.

18:34 And it was the lie, it was untruth when embraced that brought the first disunity into the human race. It brought disunity between God and man. And then subsequently it brought the first open hostility between man and man. God had revealed truth concerning how sinful man should approach Him.

19:03 And there is no indication in Scripture that God's frown was upon Cain because he brought of the fruit of the ground. God accepted such sacrifices in the Old Testament Levitical structure He even mandated them. But God had revealed that any offering had to be brought in faith by a righteous man. And the Scripture tells us that Cain was an unrighteous and wicked man who hated his brother because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous and that he did not bring his offering in faith.

19:46 He believed the devil's lie. And what was the truth? And what was the result? That beautiful harmony between brothers.

19:54 That deep earthly bond of two men that shared the same womb. One of them rises up in the field and plunges whatever instrument of death he used into the back or into the chest or heart of his own brother. And from that day until now, all of the fragmentation of men has its fundamental roots in the outworking of error and in building the kingdom of grace. The kingdom of his own dear son.

20:29 God builds that kingdom in so far as he dismantles the kingdom based upon error, ignorance, and darkness.

20:42 And so then, according to the word of God,

1 Corinthians 1 & 3: A Case Study in Doctrinal Unity

20:46 we are given to understand that if we would have truth, true unity as churches, it must not only be unity based upon a common experience of the saving grace of God, but a growing common conviction concerning the revealed truth of God. And I want to demonstrate this now again from several pivotal passages. First of all, the passage I read in your hearing at the beginning of the message tonight, 1 Corinthians, chapter 1.

21:24 You remember the situation? That's why I read both passages. There were divisions in the church at Corinth. How extensive it was, we do not know.

21:37 If we were to press it, we'd say everybody in the church was part of it, because Paul says, each one of you saith, but I don't think it's right to press it. But at least it was extensive enough that it was general knowledge by the entire church, so when the epistle, it came and was first read, you didn't have people sitting there saying, what in the world is Paul talking about? I never saw any of this divisiveness. So it was widespread enough that we could not describe the prevailing climate of the church at Corinth as one of church unity.

22:09 We couldn't describe it that way. And we saw in our previous study that of all the checklist of pastoral concerns the apostle is going to deal with, now concerning, now concerning, now concerning, this is the first one he addresses, and it's very interesting how he addresses it. Look at the language of verse 10, chapter 1. Now I beseech you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, brethren, on the basis of everything revealed about God, in the person and work of his Son, you see how he's bringing redemptive perspectives and motives directly to bear, on this problem of divisiveness. I beseech you through the name, through the revelation of God in Jesus Christ and by his authority, that you all feel the same feeling of warmth one to another. Now that's where a lot of people think unity starts, at the level of our feelings. But that is not what he says.

23:22 He says, I beseech you that you all be speaking the same thing.

23:34 I want you to have one united confessional tongue. I want you all to speak the same thing. And what's the contrast to that? And that there be no schisms or divisions among you.

23:53 And then is it, if someone were to say, but surely, Paul, you don't mean that we all come together and agree to parrot the same words? Of course not. But that the speaking of the same thing be an external verbal expression of an internal disposition of mind and heart. But that you be perfected, that you be joined, that you be mended together.

24:22 It's the same verb used concerning, those early disciples that were by the seashore mending their nets. The same verb found in Ephesians 4. He gives pastors and teachers for the perfecting, for the mending, the joining together, the putting into joint of the saints. He said, I want you perfected.

24:50 I want you put back together. I want you mended. I want you mended together in the same minus and in the same judgment. Gnome, which can literally mean opinion.

25:09 I want you all to be opinionated with the same opinion. I want you all to be strong-minded with the same mind. I want you all to be perfected, mended into one. All of the limbs, all the limbs of the body there that are out of joint, I want them set so the body's all in joint and all the limbs are working efficiently and harmoniously once again.

25:40 What is the remedy? Confessional oneness. I want you to speak the same thing that grows out of a oneness of mind and of judgment. Now in the context, what are the specific things that they must come to oneness of mind about?

26:03 Well, he's dealing with divisions as they were manifested in this party spirit in which some were lining up behind Apollos and saying, he's my man. Some behind Peter saying, he's my man. Some behind Paul saying, he's my man. And then the super-spiritual, while cutting themselves off from others, say, Christ is our man.

26:26 That was the climate. And he says in that climate, you're not speaking the same thing. And what were they not speaking the same thing about? Well, he addresses those things.

26:41 First of all, he says, you've got to get your heads sorted out concerning the work of Christ. Notice verse 13. Is Christ divided?

26:55 Was Paul crucified for you? He said, you need to get your heads lined up on the nature of the person and the work of Christ. Is Christ one Christ theologically? Yes.

27:14 Well then, how in the world, if you are united to Christ and are an expression of the body of Christ, can you be breaking off from one another? There is something defective in the outworking of your Christology. Is Christ divided? Is Christ divided?

27:29 His person. Was Christ crucified? Was Paul crucified for you? And the answer is obviously no.

27:39 It was Christ who was crucified for you. Then he says, you've got to get your baptism of theology, your theology of baptism sorted out. Were you baptized into the name of Paul? Did you swear supreme allegiance and attachment to Paul when you were baptized?

27:58 To Apollo? To Cephas? Of course not. You swore supreme allegiance to Jesus Christ.

28:07 All of you did. All of you said the same thing in your baptism. You said, I am Christ's. All his.

28:17 Only his. Forever his. Now how come some of you are saying, I'm of Paul. I'm of Apollos.

28:26 I'm of Cephas. You see, you've allowed your baptismal theology to erupt. It's not percolating in your soul and regulating your thinking. Go back not only to your theology of the person and work of Christ.

28:40 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Go back to your baptismal theology. In your baptism you were baptized into Christ.

28:51 You swore supreme religious attachment to Christ. You pledged your hearts to Christ. It is Christ whom you confessed in your baptism. And then he said, thirdly, you need to get your theology of the Christian ministry sorted out.

29:06 You need to speak the same thing about ministers. And you'll never do it unless you're of the same mind and judgment about ministers. Your mind and judgment about ministers is all skewered. And that's why you're saying wrong things about ministers.

29:22 I'm of Paul. I'm of Apollos. He said, let's go back to the theology of the ministry. So what does he do?

29:29 Notice how he goes to the theology. He picks up that theme in chapter 3. I read it in your hearing. He says, what then is Apollos and what is Paul?

29:42 Simple question. He assumes they will answer. Well, they're ministers through who we believe. He says, all right, fine.

29:49 But remember this. Some of you believe through Paul. Some of you believe through Apollos. Why?

29:55 Because the Lord was pleased to make his ministry effectual. I planted. Apollos watered. God watered.

30:02 Gave the increase. Neither is he that planteth. Paul anything. Neither he that watereth.

30:09 Apollos, he's nothing. But God that gives the increase. If you go back to your theology of the ministry of Corinthians, go back to your own initial theology of the ministry. What happened when these various instruments came into your lives?

30:29 God simply used them as instruments. Now, if you will, begin to be of one mind and one judgment concerning the nature of the ministry. They are mere instruments in the hands of God. Blessed to your good according to the sovereign will of God.

30:43 Then you'll speak the same thing about every one of them. And you'll say, Paul is mine. Apollos is mine. Christ is mine.

30:53 Cephas is mine. All things are mine. And I am Christ's. You see, they forgot their theology about the ministry.

31:03 And then he goes on. To say, now he that plants and he that waters are one. How come when one farmer goes out and puts the seed in the ground, another one comes by and waters it and one plant grows up and you guys, what are you doing? You're taking and dividing the product of their labors.

31:21 He said, that's stupid. That isn't why they labored. They labored as one out of one motive to please God and to honor Christ and for your soul's good. He that plants and he that waters are one.

31:34 And each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. And that reward is not parceled out by you lining up behind the man who was more used in your life and the man more used in your life. Let God reward them in the last day for he alone can measure their faithfulness to their task and to their charge. You see what he's doing?

31:58 He's curing the problem of division not by telling them to have a prayer meeting and wait until they feel okay. Let them feel a warm glow and have a holy hug. Now, I'm not against hugging. I'm a hugger.

32:12 I've been preaching to our people for years. Take the five imperatives of the New Testament. Greet one another with a holy kiss four times. Another time, greet one another with the kiss of brotherly love.

32:24 And we cannot spiritualize that away to where we do not give one another peculiar expressions of Christian physical affection. So, I'm not rationalizing away. But what I'm saying is that was not Paul's cure for division at Corinth. Come together and pray until you all feel warm and have a holy hug.

32:48 He said, sit down and get your theology sorted out. Speak the same thing and you won't speak the same thing about ministers until you're of the same mind and of the same opinion and same judgment and you won't do that until you go back to God. Until you go back to God. Until you go back to God.

33:06 Until you go back to God. Until you go back to God. Until you go back to God. Until you go back to God.

33:07 Until you go back and you are one in your theology of the person and work of Christ, one in your theology of the significance of baptism, and one in your theology of the nature of the Christian ministry. Now, brethren, if that is not what the passage teaches and if that isn't what the apostle is doing, I don't know what to make of the passage.

33:30 I'm not asking you to buy every nuance of my interpretation, much less every comment to seek to illustrate an answer. Amplify. But what I'm saying, if that is not the basic modus operandi of the apostle, pray tell, what in the world is he doing introducing this theology of the Christian ministry for? Why this extended treatment of baptism and saying, well, I think I baptized this one, that one, maybe this one.

33:59 I can't remember if I baptized it. Why is he doing that? To enforce in the concreteness of their own experience that they are not that by lining up behind Paul and Apollos and Cephas, they were denying the theology they confessed when they came into the Christian faith in their baptism.

34:20 Now, what is that? But an appeal to unity based upon common conviction concerning the revealed truth of God. False thinking about Christ, about the significance of their baptism, and the Christian ministry had led to the schisms. And only one way to cure the schisms.

34:50 That was correct thinking about Christ, about baptism, and the Christian ministry.

Ephesians 4: Unity of the Spirit and the Spirit of Truth

34:59 Now, a second passage. Ephesians chapter 4.

35:04 Just trying to demonstrate that the second great ingredient of true church unity is a common conviction of the Christian faith. Concerning the revealed truth of God. We've looked at a watershed passage dealing with disunity, and I trust you see that the thesis is supported. Now we deal with a powerful exhortation to unity.

35:30 Ephesians 4.

35:33 I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called with all lowliness and meekness, with 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, and one Godhood, and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. And then he goes on to mention the diversity of grace manifested in the measure of giftedness within the church. But will you notice that nestled in the midst of this appeal that they give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit. He's assuming that that unity rests down upon God.

36:45 On such commodities as the reality of God constituting them one body, causing them to be indwelt by one Spirit, calling them to one hope, that is, a confident expectation of completed redemption at the second coming of Christ. They had embraced one Lord as the object of their faith, one faith, and that does not refer to faith as the subjective spiritual exercise of trust and reliance upon another. It's speaking of one faith, that is, one body of revealed truth. And it was that one body of revealed truth to which their hearts pledged allegiance that was one of the great strands in the bonds of the unity they had already known. And as they consciously endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, they will do so only so far as they, in the language of Jude, contend earnestly for the faith once for all

38:11 delivered to the saints as surely as any body of Christ will be rent asunder if people begin to have divergent views on the person of Christ. If some begin to deny that He's even the Lord now and won't really be Lord till He comes and sets up an earthly kingdom at His second coming, surely such teaching will rend any assembly of God's people. Likewise, if they do not hold to the one faith that is, have common convictions concerning the great pivotal issues of the revealed truth of God, there can be no true spiritual unity. There are many reasons for this, but I say perhaps none is more compelling than the fact that when our Lord Jesus in the upper room discourse promises the coming of the Spirit, He gives two predominant designations to the Spirit. He's called the Paraclete, the one called alongside to help. In the old author eyes, the Comforter.

39:31 And then the second designation, which is more prominent than any other, He is called the Spirit of Truth.

39:39 He is the Comforter. He's called alongside to help. May I say it reverently, Jesus says, He is my alter ego. I'll leave you, but I'll come to you.

39:52 And when I come to you in the person of the Paraclete, I and my Father will come and take up our residence with you. And that dimension of the Spirit's ministry bound up in His name as Paraclete, one called alongside to help, brings in all of the elements of the consolations and the graces important, imparted by the indwelling Spirit. But He's also called the Spirit of Truth. He will lead you apostles into all the truth.

40:26 He shall not speak of Himself, but He shall bring to remembrance the things I've said unto you. He will show to you apostles things to come. He is the Spirit of Truth and all that He reveals is truth. And the Spirit who is the Comforter and the Spirit of Truth are one in the same Spirit and the same Spirit and the same Spirit Therefore, if we would maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, we must not only give due emphasis to all of His gracious activities as the Paraclete, but all due respect to Him as the Spirit of Truth.

41:08 The Holy Spirit has been the great effector of two great incarnations. It was the Spirit who brooded over Mary's womb, the Spirit of God shall come upon thee. The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. Therefore, that which is begotten of thee shall be called Son of God.

41:34 He was there in a way unrevealed to us in the mystery of actually taking of Mary's substance and constituting the God-Man in two distinct natures. He's yet one purpose, one person in the mystery of the hypostatic union.

41:56 But He's effected a second great incarnation. That is, the embodiment of the mind of God in the Scriptures for holy men spake as they were born along by the Holy Spirit. All Scripture is the out-breathing of God and is profitable and the Holy Spirit is more, most powerfully present in all of His mighty and manifold workings where most honor is given to the Incarnate Son and where there is most meticulous adherence to the words of Holy Scripture. And there is no unity like unto that unity where men have illuminated minds concerning the identity and mission of Jesus and they are born bound in supreme religious attachment to the one Lord. And with all their hearts are pressing to an ever-increasing measure of understanding and commitment concerning the one faith. They do not honor the Word at the expense of the Son or attempt to honor the Son at the expense of the Word. But they realize that there must be equal honor given to the Incarnate Son

43:24 and to the Incarnate Word that is the Word of God given to us in the Scriptures. And so the Apostle goes on in this passage and we don't have time to amplify it tonight, but in this very passage when he takes off in the transition verse, verse 7, though we have all of these things in common in our spiritual oneness unto each one of us, was grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ? And there is differing, there are differing dimensions of Christ activity giving some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. And what is one of the great ends for which he gives pastors and teachers? Verse 12, for the perfecting, there's our word, for the putting together, for the mending of the saints unto the work of service, unto the building up of the body, of the body of Christ, till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we be no longer children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, but speaking truth in love may grow up into Him. Do you see what the dominant emphasis is?

44:52 Pastors and teachers are given by the ascended Christ not to usurp the affection that belongs only to Christ, not to usurp the government and rule that belongs only to Christ, but to be Christ's instruments to see the saints come to the unity of the faith, that is, the unity of their understanding and commitment to reveal, to come to a unity of the knowledge of the Son of God, that they be no more like a little skiff out in four- to six-foot waves in the midst of a hurricane tossed hither and yon, but that they become rooted and steadfast and stable and mature in what area? In being able to detect the wiles of error and have a knowledge that follows out every path of truth. And in that context, he pictures the body growing up into the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ. You see, we must not envision spiritual unity, church unity, in any way that puts into a secondary realm

46:19 this matter of a common conviction concerning God, the revealed truth of God. It's very interesting that in that description of the Jerusalem church that we looked at in the first night under the heading The Attainability of Church Unity, what is the first thing said about their continuance? Acts 2.42 These all continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching.

46:54 And as, as Pastor Reese reminded us yesterday morning, why is preaching central in our worship? Many questioned the validity in that in our day. They say no. Congregational participation of one form or another ought to be central in preaching just a little catalyst on the side.

47:16 Well, if you were here, you know why. He said what is valid and true with respect to this issue. In the proclamation of the Word, God is telling us who He is, such a glorious being as to be worthy of our worship. He's telling us in the Word how to worship Him.

47:37 He's giving us the motives to worship Him. He's telling us how gratitude that is the great consequence of true worship will cut a course of obedience in the home, in the family, in the shop, in the workplace, in the neighborhood, in the cause of missions, in the work of spreading the gospel. And you see, it was apostolic teaching that gave form and structure and direction to the entire fabric of apostolic church life. No wonder, it says, they were of one heart and of one soul.

48:13 Why? Because they were all under the impress of one doctrine.

48:20 They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine.

Maintaining Biblical Standards and Confessionalism

48:26 That's put first, not just for convenience, but to emphasize. This very truth that we're seeking to establish. In conclusion, under this heading then, I believe we are warranted to say we can only have true spiritual unity when bound together with those who have a common experience of the saving grace of God. We are brought to and increasingly cultivate a spirit of humble submission to the Scriptures.

49:01 In that context, we will be brought to an ever-growing, common conviction concerning the revealed truth of God. We must be ready to believe and practice all that the Scriptures require of us, even if it means we must jettison thoughts and convictions and practices long held. I think back many years ago when God first brought our assembly into birth, more years ago than I'd like to remember, I think, more years ago than I'd like to remember, I think, more years ago than I'd like to remember, I think, more years ago than I'd like to remember, I think, more years ago than I'd like to remember. And there was a little thing that I used time after time when something would be proposed as we were searching the Scriptures.

49:42 What is a church? How should it function? How should it worship? And something would be proposed to the congregation and someone would say, but pastor or so-and-so addressing me or one of the other elders, we never did it that way.

49:57 And I'd get a very serious look and I'd say, oh, did you go down and join the Lord at the local Roman Catholic church today? He'd say, what do you mean? I said, you just spoke like a Roman Catholic. No, I didn't.

50:11 God saved me out of Romanism. Ah, but all the Romanism isn't out of you yet. When such and such was proposed from the Word of God, what was your objection? Um, um, oh, I see what you're saying.

50:27 What I said is, we never did it that way. In other words, it's not our tradition. But you see, the issue is not is it our tradition,

50:36 but is it mandated by the Word of God?

50:41 Is it mandated by the Word of God? Has a convincing biblical case been made in this particular tenet of concern, be it doctrine in the abstract or doctrine in its application to life and practice? We're not talking now about the manifold ways that solid, non-negotiable biblical truths may find themselves in their particular expression. It may indeed be the part of wisdom for you to change your Sunday morning service to ten o'clock as opposed to eleven.

51:17 It may indeed be expedient to move back your evening service to four in the afternoon. Those are matters of judgment. But don't you come and say it's a matter of indifference whether we meet on the second or the fourth or the first day of the week.

51:35 That's a matter of revealed truth. God has set His mark upon the Lord's Day Sabbath from the beginning of creation as our own confession so beautifully states. There was one day in seven and that principle becomes embodied in the Mosaic framework with all of its trappings and with the centrality of the seventh day. And as John Owen so beautifully states in his introduction to Hebrews, that Jewish Sabbath went into the tomb with the Son of God and there it buried.

52:18 And out of the tomb on the first day of the week came the Lord's Day Sabbath, the original creation ordinance stripped of all of the encumbrances of Mosaic legislation and now bristling and throbbing with all the glory of new covenant life and power. It's the Christian Sabbath.

52:46 You're not free to say, well, we'll change it to Tuesday. We'll change...

52:50 No, no, no! When we meet, that's where we need to be sensitive to one another. Where we meet, we've met in everything but bar rooms,

53:03 fire halls, women's clubs. I've preached with Parisian sidewalk cafes, stage props all around me. And...

53:15 And ghastly, ghostly lights, green and yellow, trained on me. I looked like a ghoul.

53:24 But that was the only place God made for us. And we had no authority to change the color of the lights. But God was there. Why?

53:34 Because the Lord commanded His blessing where a people were dwelling together in unity.

53:41 United! Not only in a common bond of common experience of the grace of God, but united in common convictions concerning the revealed truth of God. Now, I am not saying that there can be no church unity unless every single church member agrees with every other church member and with every elder on the interpretation of every line of Scripture. That's nonsense.

Theological Unity on Core Doctrines

54:08 And I don't know any sane man that ever proclaimed that. That's the business of the Jehovah's Witnesses. You've got to believe everything that comes cranked out of the watchtower press. There's no room!

54:18 There's no room for individual judgment and liberty. And God have mercy if anything like that even begins to be a true allegation of any of us. But on the great issues of who God is, what is man's condition by nature? What is the very nature of salvation?

54:40 Does God do the saving, all of it from beginning to end? Or does God plus man do it? God plus chance? Perhaps you heard me say this.

54:50 You heard the story of the poor, humble, but godly black woman whose preacher got hold of the doctrine of election. He started preaching it. And it got her a little confused at first. And she came to him and says, Preacher, you was talking about this election business.

55:10 What do you mean about this election? He says, Well, Sister Jones, let me ask you this. Is you saved? Yes, I'm saved.

55:19 Does you know that you're saved? Yes, I know that I'm saved. Well, let me ask you a second question. Who done the saving?

55:27 What did the Lord, He done the saving? How much of it? He done it all. Now, you say you know as you say it.

55:33 You ask it. And you say, The Lord done it. The Lord done it. He done it all.

55:37 He done it all. Now, I ask you one more question.

55:42 Did He do it on purpose or were it an accident? Well, preacher, He done it on purpose. He said, That's election.

55:56 He did it. He did it all. He did it on purpose. You don't need to know the word.

56:03 But you better be united if we're going to say it. If we're going to say it, if we're going to say it, if we're going to sit and open up our hymn books and we're going to sing any hymn that reflects biblical norms with one voice, one mind, one judgment, we better be able from the heart to sing, Twas not that I did choose thee, for, Lord, that could not be. This heart had still refused thee, had thou not chosen me. Why was I made to hear His voice in any way?

56:35 Why was I made to hear His voice in any way? Why was I made to hear His voice in any way? While there's room when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come, it was the same voice, it was the same voice that called me. And it's been changed in some of the hymns, some of the renditions.

56:56 Sweetly drew. Some write, and I think it's the original text, sweetly forced me in. Not forced me against my will, but so operated operated upon my will that I came most freely, being made willing in the day of His power. You see, if we're not of one mind on such fundamental issues as these, there can be no true spiritual church unity. And when we come to such issues as the relative roles of men and women, there must be common convictions about the Word of God. Either the Bible means what it says, or God has thrown a whole handful of curbs. I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man. And when Letha Scanzoni and Nancy Hardesty and Ariel get done with the passage, they say, well, you know what that really means? In the 20th

57:58 century, elevate women to the office of preacher and elder and teacher and everything else. What has eluded the keenest, most devout minds and scholarship? Dedicated to Christ for centuries, it takes half-converted, so-called evangelical feminists to finally open up the text.

58:22 Brethren, on these issues, there must be oneness of conviction concerning the truth of God. This is why we are confessional churches, because we then stand with this quality control at our elbow. A subordinate standard, the Word of God alone, the supreme and final standard. The great truths hammered out on the anvil of the centuries of the controversies of the church and the legacy of our most sanctified minds, leaving us a confession not to be an equal authority with the Word, but to be a quality control upon our own understanding of that Word. And I tell you, you think twice, thrice. And four and seven times when you think you begin to see something that centuries of God's people didn't see, or if you see it differently, and you may see it differently, but I tell you, it will be a lot slower to go popping off your opinions. You'll share what you think of your insights with other discerning brethren. You'll seek to have it circulate among the

59:34 churches, and you'll prayerfully contemplate and consider and weigh, and you will not in a cavalier way come out. One morning and announce to the world that you've discovered the wheel, or that the wheel is no longer round but square. You young people who sometimes wonder now, how in the world can Mom and Dad sit there and take these hour-long sermons, Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, sit an hour in Sunday school, an hour in church, come back an hour, and you say, but they seem to enjoy it. Listen, dear children. You children, listen. Mommy and Daddy want to know God, and they want to be a part of it. Have one mind with their brothers and sisters in church who know God, that they might leave to you something that will help you to face life, help you to face death, help you to face the judgment, and in between those things, to live in such a way as to know true blessedness in this life. Bring honor and glory to the God who saved you. Be useful in your generation, more useful than any of us have ever been.

60:47 Because some of you precious children have been exposed to more truth before you're 12 years old than some of us had when we were 35 or 40. Oh, dear children, don't ever despise that careful opening up of the scriptures when your pastors say, well, this phrase here can't mean this, and this is, and at times you say, well, that just doesn't seem too interesting. No, it doesn't. No, but they're doing that because they want to see the church bound together in the unity of the faith and grow in the knowledge of the Son of God.

Common Commitment to the Great Concerns of God

61:29 Well, I hasten to give the third foundation, the third element in the foundation, I'm sorry, and here I will, of necessity, be more brief, and it doesn't demand the same close and repeated exposition of various passages. I hang the case on a couple of passages. If we're to know true blessedness, we must know true blessedness. We must know true blessedness.

61:52 True biblical spiritual church unity, it must not only be a unity based upon a common experience of the grace of God, a common understanding of the revealed truth of God, but a common commitment to the great concerns of God. It is a fact of human experience that a common cause which is bigger than the petty concerns of individuals is a powerful force to affect one's life. It is a great unity among otherwise disunited men and women. For example, I'm old enough to believe, I mean to remember the Second World War, and to remember what it was like living through that war. Now, I was in a home that would be now considered borderline poor. I would imagine some social worker would have been at our doorstep about once a month trying to offer us some kind of help, and my dad would have run him off the porch.

62:55 We didn't think we were poor, but looking back, we probably were borderline poor. We never went to bed hungry. We were loved and cared for. But I can remember those war years.

63:06 And as a kid, we'd say to one another, to our buddies, we're at war. We were at war. Well, none of us was holding a gun. None of us was flying an airplane. None of us was on a ship. But there was that sense, we were at war. And if you took out a piece of gum, you very carefully saved the tinfoil. And you started rolling it up into a ball until you got a ball that big, and then you turned it into the war effort. You didn't resent the fact that when Mom sent you to the little corner store for a pound of sugar, no five-pound bags, a pound of sugar, you took your little black coupons and you gave it to the grocer. Why? We were at war. And everywhere you turned, there were posters. I remember one that really got to me. It showed a guy sinking beneath the waves, and it just showed his hand up above the wave. He was drowning, and over it said, Everybody talked. I tell you, you were scared to open your mouth. If I know anything about the war effort, where's some spy for the Germans or the Japanese that may be listening? There

64:08 was a sense, everywhere you turned, on the top of every factory that was producing war goods, there would be some flag indicating their efforts were being honored by the government. We were at war. We were put up with all kinds of things that this generation would squawk and riot over. Why? There was a common cause bigger than all of our petty little individual concerns.

God's Glory and Christ's Knowledge as Unifying Passions

64:36 And I tell you, this is true in the Church of Christ. When in any given local church, by the power of the Spirit through the Word, the people of God have a common commitment to the great concerns of God, it is a marvelous instrument both to effect mainstream service and to affect the world. fact maintain and increase their unity. And what are those great concerns of God that are the most powerful in uniting God's people? Two. I believe they can all be reduced to two. Number one, the concern that God alone may be glorified in His church. And secondly, the concern that Christ alone may be known through His church. That's it. And you get

65:33 a body of people bound together in common spiritual experience, committed to a common body of truth, consumed with a common passion for those great goals. God alone glorified in His church. Christ alone. God alone through His church. And there you will find a unified church. Two key texts and then I'm done. Under the head of unity and the passion that God be glorified, the key text in the New Testament is Romans 15. Paul has spent a whole chapter and a half dealing with the matter of differences from cultural and religious backgrounds. The New Testament only mentions two common points of unity, and that is that a man or woman can serve as God's closer man for the sake of godliness and for the sake of the purpose of God's kingdom. This is the key to God's uniting.

66:30 And the one that's missing is a man who is role-playing with his own faith. A man who has an uniting, to which God has given government, that's being a role-playing with his own faith, yet we're seeing that we have an uniting in God, an uniting in Christ who is uniting God. He's being an uniting and not a role-playing with something that God is. We need to be uniting and we need to really be uniting. And so we have to be uniting in the Holy Spirit, and we have to be uniting in God. The last thing is to be uniting and to be uniting in this world and in the world that all one. Don't anybody do this. Don't anybody do that. He would have made rules that went beyond the law of God. But rather than do that, here's that individuality you see that is jealously guarded, that entered into my definition of unity. Here is diversity. Here is difference of perspective and conviction on non-moral issues, jealously guarded. And then he comes to his glorious conclusion at the end of that whole section in verse 5 through 7 of Romans 15, Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another, according to Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify. By the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, wherefore, receive ye one another, even as

67:46 Christ also received you to the glory of God. You see, this is not a unity in the abstract. It's in the real church at Rome with real Gentile Christians and real Christians of Jewish background and all the problems that created. That Paul, has been addressing in the previous chapter and a half explicitly and implicitly in the entire epistle, Romans 9 to 11, showing universal sinfulness in 118 to 320. He's been dealing with it all through the epistle and he says here's the great end in view, that there in Rome, there will be an actual church made up of real, live, converted, imperfectly sanctified sinners made saints. Saints who so receive one another from the heart and are bound together in this great passion that God will be glorified in His church, that you will with the same mind, with one accord, with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

69:01 And when a group of people are filled with that passion, the parallel passage being Ephesians 3, 20, 21, unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever. Unto Him be glory in the church. Oh, dear people, again, Pastor Reese has emphasized. This whole notion that the church is an institution that exists to scratch me wherever I may itch.

69:40 I have an itch for social interaction. The church must meet it. I have an itch that I have to have a place where my kids will be entertained and their social needs met. The church must do it.

69:53 A church must this. Church, I am so tired of people saying the church must this and the church must that. It's God's church. And He says it is His living temple where His new covenant priesthood is to gather to offer up spiritual sacrifices that bring glory and honor to this ever-blessed God.

70:17 And you let a group of people get filled with this common commitment to the great concerns of God. Let God be glorified in His church. Let God be honored in the midst of His people. And then how wicked.

70:34 Personal glory, personal ambition, petty likes and dislikes, how ugly they appear if they will undermine our ability with one mouth and one heart, one soul, one spirit, glorify this great God. And then the other text that points to this other great concern that Christ may be known through His church. The pivotal text is Philippians. One, that church that had known such blessed unity, that had had a peculiar missionary vision and passion, they had just sent by the hand of Epaphroditus this gift to Paul that he regards as a spiritual sacrifice that pleased God. Chapter 4, verse 18. But this is his exhortation. Chapter 1, in verse 27.

71:33 Only let your manner of life be worthy. Of the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or be absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one soul, striving for the faith of the gospel, striving for the advancement of the Christian faith. That's the sense of it, because notice what he says, in nothing affrighted by the adversaries. You will suffer as you give yourself to seeing Christ claim His blood-purchased rights among men, as you strive with one spirit, one soul, to see the gospel advance. Yes, there will be opposition, but it is the gracious gift of God not only to believe, but to suffer for His name. And let a church made up of saved men and women, holding a common conviction. About who God is, and who Christ is, and what the gospel is, and that Christ shall see of the travail of His soul.

72:43 That evangelism and efforts to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth are not a pathetic effort, hoping you can help a disappointed Christ, but rather a glorious privilege to be in the train of His triumph. Thanks be to God, who always leads us to triumph in Christ. And makes manifest through us the savor of His knowledge in every place. Paul sits in a jail, he says, I'm in the train of my Savior's triumph.

73:16 Paul stands on Mars Hill, and they mock him. He's in the train of Christ's triumph. And when great multitudes turn, he's in the train of Christ's triumph. And when this concern to give itself with one heart, one mind.

73:35 One soul to the proclamation of the gospel becomes the great passion of any given church. There is a level of unity that otherwise will never be known. What are my petty little concerns, standing in the corner waiting for five people to come and ask me how I am. Ticking it off to see if this is a caring church.

73:56 What nonsense.

73:58 When a world is going to hell, and there may be sinners in the service that very day. And if you weren't standing in the corner. With your back to the people waiting for everybody to ask you how you are. But you were looking for the stranger.

74:13 Going to the stranger. Extending a word of welcome. Tactfully finding out who they are. Where they come from.

74:21 Do they know the Lord? Get filled with a passion to see the faith of the gospel go forward. And you'll stop all this nonsense about, this is a cold church.

74:33 It's the horrible chill coming out from your own heart. Enveloping your own face.

Gospel-Centered Prayer and Missions

74:41 You get committed as a people. For the work of the gospel. And what will happen to your prayer meetings. Instead of them being a recitation of the most ludicrous descriptions of the most minute illnesses.

74:55 From a second cousin twice removed who's got an ingrown toenail. Who lives in Nebraska. And all this other nonsense. What is the prayer burden of the church to be?

75:06 I'm not talking about those special little circles. Of the family and intimate friends. Where we bear one another's burdens more intimately. But 1st Timothy 2, 1 to 6 is clear.

75:17 The church's prayer burden is to focus on the great concerns of the spread of the gospel among the nations. I will first of all that prayer, supplication, intercession, giving of thanks be made. For all men, kings, rulers, to what end? That God may so govern the nations.

75:39 And how appropriate. This very night. That Benazir Bhutto kicked out. And with the troops going into the Middle East.

75:48 And with the rumblings of war and rumors of war. To cry, O Lord Jesus seated upon your throne of absolute sovereignty. Do, do with that madman Hussein like you did to Nebuchadnezzar. God who's to walk in pride you're able to abase.

76:10 God could make him. Choke on his next piece of steak. God could reveal his glory and prostrate him in humility. And when you see we're bound by a common passion to get the gospel out.

76:25 Our prayer meetings are no longer a tedious recitation of every kind of illness and sickness. As one of our people said recently said pastor. I am scared to miss a prayer meeting. I never know what new and exciting door God may be opening.

76:41 What thing he's doing here and there and yonder. I fear to miss a prayer meeting. For fear I might hear some new aspect of the glorious triumphs of Christ. It does wonders for our prayer meetings.

76:56 It does wonders for our plans and projects. We don't sit around wondering what to do with the nest egg that we're sitting on. We're pleading with God to give greater blessing upon the labors of his people. That we might have more seed for sowing.

77:12 It's a matter of the needs. The needs are so vast. Where can we give of ourselves and of our substance? I hope lasting in one place for two and a half decades gives me at least a little credibility to say something biographical.

77:32 Because this is so real and I close with this very current illustration. This concept was brought home to my own heart so powerfully this past weekend. Our own missionary Arif Khan returns today, tonight to Pakistan. And we had a one day missionary conference for people in churches that we couldn't send him to in this brief furlough.

77:54 Because we wanted him to be rested and have interaction with the Lord's people. The Sunday night before one of our young men recently graduated from the academy preached. And he preached with such unction and blessing of God upon him that I felt the congregation was going to rise up as one. And just raise its hands and break out in the hallelujah chorus.

78:18 He got preaching about heaven. Two of our godly teenage girls came to me afterwards. They said, Pastor, can we speak to you? I said, sure.

78:26 Said, even though we're women and we know that we're not to take a prominent part. Is it all right if we say amen? We don't out loud. We don't mean loud loud.

78:37 But is it all right just saying mmm didn't seem enough when Randy was preaching tonight. What a joy it was to turn them to the word of God and show from 1 Corinthians. No indication that Paul says, how shall the men say the amen? No, no.

78:54 It's an indication that the whole congregation said it's amen. I said, when you're so blessed you got to say an amen out loud. Don't grieve or quench the spirit. You say your amen.

79:05 Why am I saying all of this? Well, you see, God gave us an unusual concentration. Frank Barker over in Nigeria on a Barnabas visit. A possible whole new door of gospel endeavor.

79:17 A young man on a plane on his way to South Africa to take up pastoral labors fully cognizant of what he's walking into. With a wife so scared just a year ago that he couldn't even pray about going to South Africa in their family devotions. But in his closet he pleaded with God and God turned her heart. We saw that woman glowing saying, I can't wait to get on the plane and go.

79:45 His wife, when they came home 12 weeks ago, drained. Absolutely drained physically, emotionally and spiritually. And when we had a debriefing of this past two years with the combined elders and deacons meeting, she bared her heart and said, I have no desire to return. We saw that dear woman a week ago Thursday night in an elders meeting glowing.

80:09 She said, I'm ready to go back. Why? Because God's people prayed and ministered. To what end?

80:18 That Christ may be known in the house of Islam in Pakistan. Why the sense of excitement when we get a telex and a telephone call from Nigeria? Because Christ may be known in areas where these six churches have been part of a cult that you wouldn't believe the horrible mishmash of Romanism and animism. And one tape fell into the hands of one man.

80:46 And God gave him a heart. And a truth. And he said, they've got some truth that I need. And like the importunate friend, he wouldn't stop.

80:55 Seven letters. That's how we sift out our third world contacts. We figure if they're serious, they'll keep writing. This man just...

81:03 Well, why am I saying all of this? Well, I'm saying that the sense of unity for someone to be grousing and grumbling because they don't like the color of paint in the nursery. How stupid and inane and childish. How childish it would appear in a climate where people's eyes and hearts are filled with the vision and passion to see Christ known in our generation.

81:31 Oh, dear people, this is true church unity. When God, by the Holy Spirit, brings a people who've had a common experience of the grace of God, are being brought more and more to common convictions about the revealed truth of God, committed in their hearts to the great concerns of God, His glory in the church, and the knowledge of His Son through the church. And only as those things are present and remain vital by the operation of the Holy Spirit will we attain and maintain true spiritual unity. Let us pray. O our Father, we thank You for those times when You give us, with the mouth of our souls, to taste and to see that You are good. We thank You for these days in which You have been pleased to draw near to us.

Concluding Prayer and Application

82:45 You have fed us as we have sought to learn afresh how worthy You are of our worship. As You have reminded us afresh that all that we are and have is Yours, and we are to regard nothing as our own. And we pray that You will take the truth preached tonight and bring us as churches more and more to that unity envisioned in the portions that we have considered. O Lord, for those who sit here who have no experience of Your saving grace, we pray that what they've sensed others are experiencing under the very preaching, will make them jealous.

83:29 For Lord, You have said that You have shown mercy to the Gentiles if possible to provoke the Jews to jealousy. Lord, provoke some who sit here tonight knowing that others are seeing and tasting and feeling things that are utterly foreign to them. God, make them jealous that they may give themselves no rest till they too have tasted and seen that You are good. We pray for the dear children who are here.

83:57 Make impressions upon their young souls far beyond that which they can even sort out in their little minds. And may those impressions linger and last and be an instrument in the hands of the Holy Spirit to bring them to Yourself and bring them to true maturity in Christ. Lord, we bless You. We thank You.

84:21 Now we ask as we come to the close of the day in which You have watched over us, protected us, food for our bodies and our souls. O God, what miserable ingrates we would be did we not say, Blessed be Your holy name for all of Your benefits to us. May Your blessing rest upon us this night. May we be given the gift of good rest.

84:48 You give to Your beloved sleep. Give us sleep, restful sleep. Awake us to the new day with hearts eager to seek You. And Lord, may there be no sense that the conference having passed its midpoint is winding down.

85:05 But O Lord, carry us from day to day and session to session to a more and more glorious climactic sense of Your nearness. We plead through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.