Continuance: Graces to Cultivate; Sins to Mortify

Introduction and Thanksgiving

0:05 The following address was delivered at the 1990 New England Baptist Family Conference. Before we turn to the ministry of the Word of God, I feel a special responsibility as, I don't know what else to call, but the senior partner in the preaching staff this week, senior in terms of just pure birth record validation, and I do believe that there is a special responsibility upon me. No one has charged me to do this, but I'm confident I speak for all of you as the Lord's people and for my brethren with whom I have been privileged to labor. When I say from the depths of our hearts, we are grateful to Pastor Becker and to the deacons and to the members of the congregation in East Manfield for all of the labor that you have expended in past months and even the concentrated labors of this week to make possible our coming together in this way. And as I've been privileged to enter into the labors of others over many years in conferences of this nature, I have a little understanding of all of the labor that goes on for months behind the scenes

1:30 as well as the many labors during the actual conference time, and on behalf of all of us who have entered into the fruit of your labors, we thank you in Christ's name, and we know that God is not unmindful to forget your labor of love in that you minister to the saints and still do minister. And then I want to express a special word of thanks as well to my brethren who have ministered to my heart this week, to Pastor John Reese and Pastor Dean Allen, and say how thankful to them I am. How thankful to God I am that it's become evident, I am sure, to all of us that someone above and beyond Pastor Becker has orchestrated the themes, the way they have unfolded, the way they have interfaced and interlocked and overlapped and complemented each other, and it has been a great delight to have my own soul refreshed, to be reminded of old things, to have some aspects, of truth opened up in new light, and to feel that I return to my sphere of responsibility enriched by the ministry of my brethren, and I thank you for your labors to my own heart as well as to all of us in the conference.

Recap of Church Unity Foundation and Sermon Outline

2:52 And now we come tonight in the ministry of the Word of God to this fourth and final study that I will be privileged to lead you in on the subject of church unity. And in our first study, after limiting the field of our concern to that of local church unity, I sought to lay before you a working description and definition of church unity. I sought to persuade you of the attainability of church unity and to convince you of the tremendous importance of church unity. Then, in the last two sessions, we have been contemplating the foundation of church unity. And we have seen from the Word of God that if there is to be anything that approximates the unity of the church envisioned in the New Testament, it must be a unity, as the old Puritans would say, bottomed upon. I love that old terminology. Bottomed upon.

4:01 Founded upon. Well settled upon. These three great realities. There must be a common experience of the grace of God, a common conviction regarding the revealed truth of God, and a common commitment to the great concerns of God.

4:24 Now, having considered the foundation of church unity, what I will attempt to do tonight is really just to give you an outline with some key points. Some comments and exhortations along the way on the whole subject of the growth and the expansion, the continuance, the cultivation, any of those terms would be appropriate, of this church unity. The maintenance and the growth of church unity. If there is to be, as the prevailing climate of our church, that unity that we have described as oneness and harmony of understanding, affection, purpose, and activity, while maintaining all of our legitimate expressions of individuality and diversity, it will not simply happen because the foundation has been laid by the grace of God, working by the word, under the power of the Holy Spirit, but that church unity built upon that foundation will mark our congregations only if there is a conscious effort to see it maintained,

5:51 to see it grow and develop, and the use of the means ordained of God to that end. And so what I propose to do in the time allotted to me tonight is, first of all, to make sure that we are able to see God and to see God as a whole. And so what I propose to do in the time allotted to me tonight is, first of all, to make sure that we are able to see God and to see God as a whole. And second of all, to demonstrate the necessity of conscious effort to maintain and increase church unity, and having demonstrated the necessity of conscious effort in this direction, I want us then to focus on the graces which must be cultivated if we are to maintain and grow in our church unity, and thirdly, the sins and vices that must be continually mortified if we are to grow in church unity. First of all, then, I want to demonstrate the necessity of conscious effort to maintain and increase church unity. And here I turn again to one of the passages that we've had occasion to look at at least twice in the previous messages, Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 4.

The Necessity of Conscious Effort for Unity

7:10 As the Apostle begins this exhortation, which focuses upon the subject of church unity, note his language. 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 long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now, the general exhortation of these verses is that the people of God will walk in a manner worthy of God's call to grace. The central exhortation is I beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called. Then the Apostle Paul focuses upon a specific aspect of such a walk as is worthy of our calling. And the aspect upon which he focuses is that of cultivating a life of mutual forbearance carried on in a climate of meekness, lowliness, and long-suffering.

8:38 Walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. We are to cultivate a climate in our churches of mutual forbearance, a forbearance caused and fueled by this climate of meekness, lowliness, and long-suffering. But then parallel to that, we are also to carry on a conscious effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit. In doing all of the things listed up to verse 2, he then goes on to say, giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And the verb there, give diligence, it's a present participle, which means to be continually eager to make every effort in a given direction. In other words, it speaks of a conscious, spiritual endeavor, and it is to be not intermittently exercised, but continually exercised, continually giving diligence to keep a present participle,

10:06 a present infinitive, which means to guard, to maintain, or to retain. We are then constantly to be eager to make every effort to guard continually the unity of the Spirit. It is the unity which the Holy Spirit has wrought through the truth of the Gospel and by His powerful, transforming work in our language of the two preceding messages, the unity, He has effected by laying the foundation for that unity by His own working in conjunction with the truth of the Gospel. Now that is to be our conscious, spiritual endeavor. Obviously, like every other endeavor, we are not to do it seeking to find the strength and grace in ourselves. We are to do it in an attitude of dependence upon God Himself.

11:14 We are to do it in a disposition of prayerfulness. We are to do it in the confidence that God is at work in us to will and to work of His good pleasure. We are to do it in the spirit of Philippians 4. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me, but there is no amount of prayerfulness, dependence upon the Lord, action of His help, that will ever operate that will cancel conscious endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

11:54 The Holy Spirit will keep that desire alive in our hearts. He will keep the motives pressing in upon our hearts and our minds. He will give us the power to cultivate the graces and mortify the vices essential, but He will never as to need them. He will never negate our conscious effort in that direction.

12:20 We are to give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And wherever you have a congregation that ceases to give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit, whatever measure of that unity they have known will by degrees erode. Given the reality of remaining sin, sin in the human heart, the reality of a wise and vicious devil who goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, given the influence of a seducing, bewitching world, this kind of unity that we have been describing from the Word of God this week is not a plant that will continue to grow if unattended. There are too many hostile elements in its environment. That it will never grow. It will never increase and blossom and send forth increasing fragrance unless there is a whole assembly of spiritual gardeners given to the nurture and the care of that tender, precious, and alas, almost exotic and rare plant of genuine church unity.

The Biblical Pattern: Mortification and Conformation

13:44 Now we could add many other passages, but surely if this passage does not convince our judgment, I doubt that five others would. So I trust, if not already convinced, this passage has convinced you that it is one of your constant duties as a visible disciple of Christ, as a member of a church that claims to be subject to Christ the Lord, it is one of your privileges and your duties constantly to endeavor, to guard, and to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now then, how do we do it? Well, in the pattern that John Owen has so masterfully set out in so many of his works, particularly in Volume 6, in the three treatises, Mortification, Indwelling, Sin, and Temptation, John Owen again and again asserts that the whole of the Christian life is taken up with mortification and conformation. It is taken up with putting to death those sins that are displeasing to God. It is taken up with cultivating the graces of likeness to Jesus Christ.

15:08 There is no growth in grace that is real that does not involve the constant, mortification of sin, and the constant conformation to the image and likeness of the Lord Jesus. And following that biblical pattern, which in Pauline language is the put-off and the put-on pattern, Owen was simply trying to express in fresh language to his generation that whole motif, put-off, put-on, by nature is so constructed, that we will gravitate more naturally to the putting-off or to the putting-on. And we must know ourselves and bring ourselves in hand by the grace of God with the determination that we shall give equal and biblical proportion to the putting-off and to the putting-on. So then, if you would be one who in your assembly, week by week, month by month, year by year, and I trust decade by decade if the Lord tarries and spares you, you will be found as a person who is constantly cultivating the graces essential for the maintenance

16:33 and the increase of church unity. Now I said I could only give you a bare outline with a few comments along the way, and that's what I'm going to do. I want to set before you, seven graces, and there's no significance in the number seven. Some of these might be reduced under one of them.

Seven Graces to Cultivate for Church Unity

16:55 Some of them might be amplified. I claim no special inspiration for the category, let alone the number of the categories. But I think if we see enough of them, we will have, as it were, a conscience and a spiritual consciousness alert to the kindred graces that may be the first cousin or the second cousin once removed to one of the seven graces. these dominant graces, but I've sought to focus upon the graces that are explicitly brought forward and mentioned in conjunction with passages that treat the subject of the unity of the people of God. And the first one is right here in our text in Ephesians chapter 4. We must constantly cultivate the grace of mutual forbearance. I beseech you, walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.

18:01 To forbear means to bear, to hold one's. And the whole assumption of the apostle is that in the real church of God's people, the church of God's people, the church of God's people, the church of people at Ephesus, in spite of all the privileges in Christ outlined in the first three chapters, in spite of all of the blessing they have known, and it was marvelous blessing when we read it in the book of Acts, through them when the apostle was among them, the gospel was heard throughout all of that area of Asia Minor, and churches were planted throughout that entire area. Paul is assuming that in the day-by-day congregation, in the generational interaction of the people of God, these believers with remaining sin would be bringing pressures to bear on one another, and that they needed to bear pressure that they brought one another. And so he exhorts them to forbear one another in love. Bear one another in love. Paul was a realist. He had lived too long.

19:24 Now, he began to grieve, and he started to grieve for his боль, and he did not grieve for his pain, but he had to bear the burden on his heart and with his brethren to know that the best of brethren will at times be insensitive to one another, in a crucial hour of need. When every single cell of the soul is longing for the presence of a sensitive brother or sister, that brother or sister who seems to be the utter embodiment of insensitivity will be placed in our path. There are some people who seem to have a very, very sensitive antennae, to pick up the vibrations of a hurting soul. Others seem to have all their antennae broken off.

20:04 And at the time when you long for someone to pick up those signals, and you're not looking for pity, but you're looking for that empathetic identification in the language of Romans 12, someone who will weep with you as you are weeping, or someone to rejoice with you as you are rejoicing, that utterly insensitive brother or sister is plunked right in your path. And what will happen? If you do not have some measure of the grace of forbearance to banter the creature of that brother or sister's insensitivity, you're going to find a seed of resentment taking root in your heart.

20:49 There are others that are relatively unsharing and uncaring. They have many virtues, but for one reason, they've not cultivated the virtue of a ready and an open hand. And just at a time when you were in great need and you were spreading that need before God and trusting the Lord in His own inscrutable way to meet it, someone will express something in word or deed that is a crass expression of unsharing and uncaringness. Well, what are you going to do?

21:26 Well, you need measures. The grace of mutual forbearance. And if you don't have it, you're going to find resentments and irritation growing up in your heart. And what is that?

21:44 That is a fissure. That is a crack in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. How long has it been since you prayed, Oh God, give me a fresh baptism of holy forbearance. Increase in my heart the grace, of forbearance.

22:04 Please increase it in my brethren or they're never going to get along with me. For remember, you too have been insensitive at the point where you hurt someone else. And you have been unresponsive to their patent need, not willfully, but through the various actings of indwelling sin. And sometimes, because your own heart may be so torn and broken by God's dark providence, with your own life, that you are shut up in that cocoon that the old writers called the spiritual struggles are so all-consuming that a man who at other times would be highly sensitive finds himself unable to do anything more than groan out the complaint of his own heart before God. Oh dear brothers and sisters, endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit. Seek to cultivate the grace of mutual forbearance. Mutual forbearance.

23:12 Then secondly, we need to cultivate the grace of quick, unreserved, mutual forgiveness.

23:24 Ephesians chapter 4, the latter part,

23:29 verse 30, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and review with all...

23:48 What are those dispositions? Those are the various, dispositions found in an unforgiving heart. Someone has either truly wronged or forsooth to have been wronged. And he's not dealt with the issue biblically.

24:06 And what's the result?

24:09 He becomes full of bitterness, wrath,

24:14 his mouth will indulge, be a malicious... Where his heart has been suffused with the disposition of the spirit of forgiveness.

24:34 Yes. And I want to make, a distinction that, as far as I understand the scriptures and have wrestled with my own heart and with God's people over the years, it's critical to make. There is a difference between the internal disposition of forgiveness and the actual conferral of forgiveness for a particular misdeed. Now, when we have been wronged, we cannot confer, forgiveness until the person who has wronged us seeks our forgiveness.

25:14 That's what our Lord has in mind when He says in Luke 17, 3, If thy brother sin against thee, rebuke him. If he repent, forgive him. That is, conferredness upon him. Say, the issue is let go.

25:32 It's a non-issue. It is done. It's behind us. It's forgotten.

25:37 It's over with. What about the spirit in which I go to my brother who has wronged me? What is the spirit that must be present as a prevailing when I go to a brother who's wronged me? There are some who say you cannot forgive until the person seeks forgiveness.

26:04 Do we get forgiveness from God without confessing our sin? If we confess sins, He is faithful and just to forgive. Forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, 1 John 1, 9. Ah, but my friends, God's disposition to forgive precedes His conferral of forgiveness.

26:28 If there were no disposition, there'd be no conferral. And when Jesus hung upon the cross, I'm amazed at how some Calvinist dancer jig around that text and try to prove that everyone there who heard it was ultimately saved at Pentecost or something like that. Or some other nonsense. When Jesus cried out, Father, and for they know,

26:53 He was not speaking as the judge upon the throne and in the courtroom conferring forgiveness upon sinners. He was opening up His heart and saying, this is what my disposition is. My disposition is not one, Father!

27:15 My disposition is I extend forgiveness as the disposition of my heart.

27:24 And you see, we must be like God in this critical matter. When I am wronged by another, I cannot deny if I have been truly wronged. Though the first reaction may be one of wanting to take vengeance, God says, no, vengeance is mine. He doesn't say vengeance has no place.

27:45 He says, vengeance is mine. Put that in my hands. I alone mete out vengeance apart from the human government to whom I have given a dimension. Of my vengeance to mete out upon evil.

28:00 You are never to take vengeance into your own hands. You are, the Lord says, to manifest a disposition of readiness and willingness to forgive. Isn't that what Psalm 130 Psalm 130 verse 4 says? Thou, Lord, art good to forgive.

28:23 You have a disposition to forgive and plenty in mercy unto all that call you. And so we are told in this passage, let all bitterness. It's never rather a sister is done to you. If last Sunday morning walking out of church they looked you straight in the eye 18 inches away, spat in your face, stomped on your toes, pinned the shins and cursed you.

28:55 You have no right to walk two steps with bitterness in your heart.

29:01 You have no right at any time to have a devil's spirit, unjust anger, never circumstance. No matter what it is to forgive, you too are wrong. You too are wrong. You too are wrong.

29:34 I used to say again and again, it takes two to make a fight. Two wrongs don't make a right. I was brought up on those axioms. We'd come running in, having just had a spat, and each one saying, he started, she started, and my mom said, was there a real fight?

29:49 Yes, but he, did she? She said, all right, it takes two to make a fight. You're both guilty. Who started it is academic.

29:54 You're both going to get it. Pow, pow, pow. I'm not going to waste it. I'm not going to waste it.

30:00 It takes my time. Who started it? It takes two to make a fight. In that sense, to make division, it takes someone responding to wrongs.

30:15 If we would endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, to cultivate the grace of mutual forgiveness, forgiveness as the prevailing disposition of our hearts, no matter what has been done to us, and if not, we must go to the yoke of brotherhood. We do not. We go with the Spirit that seeks to have the privilege of conferring forgiveness upon him as he repents, or in the language of Matthew 18, we seek to gain, not beat up on the brother. He did me wrong. He may have wronged, but oh, in the language or in the thought pattern of Matthew 18, what is the debt of one servant to another servant when you think of the debt of the servant to his master? When we think of that almost monetarily grotesque parable that Jesus gives in which that servant had a debt that was in the millions and was freely forgiven,

31:41 and yet he grabbed his fellow servant by the neck and was ready to squeeze him for every nickel. Jesus said, Such a person who does not have a spirit of forgiveness has never truly known forgiveness. What can my brethren do to me that in any way begins to equal the harm to my God, lovable God of heaven and earth? And he has freely forgiven me all my sins for the sake of Christ, and wonder of wonders in all of my ongoing sins. He constantly stands ready to forgive. How can I be living in communion with a God like that? How can I be going to the infinite God of heaven day after day, receiving fresh conferral of forgiveness upon confession of my specific sins?

32:50 How can I be living in forgiveness and have no other disposition as the prevailing disposition of my heart but one of forgiveness to my brethren? So that forgiveness must be the constant disposition and then the periodic conferral when there are instances where specific sins are acknowledged and forgiveness is sought. But then there is a third grace that we must cultivate if we are to know any measure of the growth and continuance of church unity. Not only the grace of forbearance, the grace of forgiveness, but the grace of mutual biblical love. Some would subsume all these graces under love and it may be done, but I'm not sure that it's right to do so. And the word of God does not do so. We are told in Colossians 3, verses 12 to 14, another passage where unity is emphasized.

34:03 Put on therefore this God's elect holy and beloved of kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another. Sound familiar? Almost identical language as we find in Ephesians 4. Put on all these graces and forgiving one another.

34:33 If any man have a complaint against any, even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye, and of things. He didn't say and comprised as all of these things. That's why I'm reluctant to just make them all aspects of love. This is a separate, distinct commodity above all these things.

34:56 Put on love, which is the perfectness. It is the band that holds all of the other graces together. As certain joints are held together, by the ligaments, the bands of the joint, so all graces, so essential in the midst of an imperfectly sanctified body of God's people, the band that holds is the grace of Biblical love. The love described in 1 Corinthians 13 that has no marks of heroism.

35:38 Most of us will live and die and never called upon to be a hero. Love all things. Love that be all things. Love that feel.

35:48 When there are possible ways to interpret a deed, not the worst. ...to drum this into your children as my dear mother drummed it into me. You'd come running in, Ma, and this because...

36:11 And she said, now wait a minute, stop. What actually happened? Well, this happened. Now why did it...

36:17 Well, because... Well, how do you know she did that because?

36:21 Well, I just... Wait a minute.

36:24 Wait a minute. Did she tell you she did that because? No, but I...

36:28 Well, stop, stop, stop. What are some of the reasons why your sister or brother may have done that? Think. Well, maybe because of this.

36:36 All right. Anything else? Well, yeah, maybe because of that. Well, what?

36:40 Sometimes four or five different things. And she'd say, now what's the best one? Well, this one. She said, assume that was the reason until you have clear evidence otherwise.

36:51 Oh, how that has saved me manifold heartaches in the ministry. People come and say, Pastor, I hope I didn't offend you. I said, offend you with what? I had this happen twice last week.

37:01 I couldn't even... I couldn't even know what they were talking about.

37:04 Well, my daughter said something to you that was disrespectful. Yeah, I said, I can't remember. I said, it must not offend me. I don't even know what you're talking about.

37:12 And it's not because my memory's like that. It's because by the grace of God, certain things were wrought into the texture of my soul. Of the wrong...

37:21 If you live naively like that, I'd rather be kicked around and have a good conscience than be self-protected in the name of God. Well, I don't know what you're talking about. I'd rather be kicked around and have a good conscience than be self-protected and have a bloody conscience and be the cause of disunity in Christ's church. We need to cultivate the grace of love, that kind of love of 1 Corinthians, that kind of love that Peter says in 1 Peter 4, 8, above all among yourselves, he says, the love that does what?

37:57 Covers a multitude of sins. You see, all true love in a real context of real sinners in a real church is the love that does what? Covers a multitude of sins. You see, all true love in a real context of real sinners in a real church is the love that does what?

38:17 Covers a multitude of sins. You see, only the angel does that. But when he's talking about that love in a church, it will always set up a blanket factory. The heart of every Christian suffused with biblical love has a little blanket factory and it's always making blankets and when it sees the faults of its brethren, it throws the blankets over and hides it from him.

38:45 Now we are not talking about We're not talking about scandalous sin that may bring into jeopardy this person's profession and the name of Christ and the testimony of the church. There are others, but we're talking about the mud of insensitivity, sins of hogging the conversation in a social situation, sins of indifference and lack of responsiveness, but the sins that are part of common infirmities in our present state and in the heart of every child of God to throw over the sins of his brethren. But alas, some Christians seem to have made a magnifying glass factory in their hearts, and they're all the time producing a magnifying glass and putting it over the faults of their brethren and blowing them out of proportion. There'll be no unity where you have too many magnifying glass factories and not enough blanket factories. Then, fourthly, we need to cultivate the grace of mutual preference.

40:05 The grace of mutual preference. What's that? That's the opposite of me-first-ism. And isn't that what Paul emphasizes in such a passage as Philippians chapter 2?

40:16 As he exhorts the Philippians to unity, what grace does he focus upon? Make full my joy, Philippians 2, 2, you be of the same mind. Having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, doing nothing through faction or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, each counting other better than himself, not looking each of you to his own things, constantly thinking, how will this affect me? How will this affect my plans, my schedule, my taste, my likes, my dislikes?

40:59 No, each of you not looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. So that the first reaction when the deacons announce the day for the annual church picnic is odd. Oh, why did they have to plan it on that day? I've already got something planned.

41:21 And then you're ready to stir up a thought. What have they spent checking with all the other departments in the church to see what was the least decision? They didn't make it hastily. They didn't make it to be me-me's day for this church can cause division.

41:52 My friend, if that's where you are, may God have mercy on you.

41:57 We need to look on the things of others. My brethren have proven that they're sensitive to the needs of the church. Surely they didn't settle on that date arbitrarily. That may have been the only date available for the only suitable place for a church picnic.

42:12 It may be in the light of this and that and the other thing. These are trusted brethren. I acknowledge them. I acknowledge them.

42:17 If they're going to be gifts of Christ, full of wisdom, full of faith, full of the Holy Ghost, then I'm going to turn around and treat them like they're nays and dopes.

42:28 If you evaluated them biblically, they're worthy of your trust. And the words trust and loyalty have pretty well gone out of this generation. You have been raised to be suspicious of the motives and judgment of anyone in authority. And you better face it, that's one of the crowning sins of this generation.

42:50 Remember what the cry of the 60s? In the early 70s was, don't trust anyone over 30. And implicit in that is, don't trust anyone with enough age and experience. And certainly, if they have any position of authority, be suspicious of them.

43:05 And it's one of the biggest battles to be faced in our churches in this coming generation. That we not overreact into a kind of Gestapo-like leadership on the one hand, nor that we cave in to a wretched congregationalism on the other. And the antidote is the grace of mutual preference. Paul says it in Romans 12 and verse 10, the same thing.

43:36 He says it more briefly, but it's exactly the same thing. He says, In love of the brethren, be tenderly affectioned one to another, in honor, preferring one another. No, my brother! Your mind in the matter is more important.

43:55 And I know, my brother, your feelings about the matter are more important. My concerns in this are purely personal.

44:05 May God grant that we will cultivate the grace of mutual preference. Now, you children, listen to me. That's why some people think, well, little things like courtesy, they're just customs. When you think of that woman who's in front of you and she's going to get to the door ahead of you if you walk at the same pace and you quicken your pace to get there and say, Sorry, ma'am, I'll open the door.

44:28 Those little things are cultivating the grace of mutual preference. What are manners but an application of this grace to the specifics of our culture? When a man holds the chair for a woman and helps seat her, she's not helpless, sure, she can pull her own seat under her rump, of course.

44:49 But what it's saying is that I'm treating you with honor. That's what God says I'm to do. Honor you as the weaker vessel, not demean you.

45:00 And you see why? How vital? How vital it is you parents don't regard manners and social courtesies as matters of just, well, I'm not running a finishing school here. It is these things taught long before grace effectually works in your children that when God is pleased to save them, will at least find a framework for the cultivation of the grace of mutual preference.

45:27 But then we must, in the fifth place, cultivate the grace of mutual preference. Of mutual acceptance. Mutual acceptance. And the key text here is Romans 15 and verse 7.

45:41 Right after that glorious exhortation that we looked at last night, concerning the whole problem of Jew and Gentile with all of the diversities of cultural and religious backgrounds and sensitivities and convictions about things that are sinful and not sinful, et cetera, et cetera, after Paul gives that exhortation that they may with one mouth and one accord glorify the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, wherefore, if you're ever going to attain this, wherefore, receive ye one another, even as Christ also received you to the glory of God. Right? You see how the redemptive dynamics come in again and again and again. We're to forgive as God forgives.

46:41 We're to receive as God received us. Now let me ask you, when God in Christ received you, how did he receive you? At arm's length, while he analyzed all the things he was going to change in you over the next year, and then after a year, draw his arm back a little bit and say, well, you've made some real progress now. You can come two feet closer.

47:06 And then after a year, you made some progress. He drew his arm back a little bit and said, now you can come three feet closer. And then after ten years, he opened his arm and embraced you when you met a certain standard. Is that how God in Christ received you?

47:18 That isn't how he received me. He received me as the Father in the parable of the prodigal son.

47:29 No sooner does the Father see that son returning, and the scripture is clear, the son did not run to the Father. He was frozen in his tracks by his sense of guilt, shame. But it says the Father ran to him, threw his arms around him, embraced him, kissed him. And the Father began to bark orders.

47:53 Bring the robe, bring the ring, bring the sandals, and grab the fatted calf. That's how God in Christ received me. That's how he received you. Now he says receive one another that way.

48:09 Now that's not natural. That's not natural. Some of us were brought up believing so many ethnic stereotypes. It's in our bloodstream.

48:23 It's a part of the texture of our souls. And we have this perspective and that perspective about this group and that group and the other group. And Paul the realist understood that and said, if you are ever to attain this kind of unity, wherefore receive one another, even as Christ received you to the glory of God, so that there is no holding people off until we, quote, see if they shape up in this area and that area. No, we receive them with all of our hearts.

49:01 And say, well, what if they prove to be hypocrites? Well, then you'll treat them as hypocrites. What if they prove to be temporary believers? Then you will treat them accordingly.

49:11 But there is no intimation in the Word. There is no word of God that someone must come by degrees into the acceptance of the people of God. Once a credible profession of faith has been made, and they are prepared to bear witness to that and cast in their lot with the people of God in the way of God's appointment, there must be cultivated among us the grace of mutual acceptance. And if there's anything, almost any group of people and any individual can, can pick up more quickly than anything else is whether or not there's a climate of unfeigned and genuine acceptance.

49:52 When God first began to bring a number of blacks into our assembly, after having had a black man as one of our elders, not as an assistant pastor, but as one of the elders, co-pastor, and our people evidenced that in their heart they were prepared to look to a black man as their shepherd, when God began to grant an influx of blacks into the membership, I began to probe and I began to ask questions because I wanted to learn from my brethren. And I said, Tell me, what was it that made you come back the second time? You came out of Newark where all you knew of religion was typical black cultural religion with the little strands of truth here and there, but predominantly an embodiment, and the preservation of your own American black culture. What made you come back a second time? And time after time, these black brothers and sisters said, because pastor in this place, we were conscious of genuine, unfeigned acceptance. We've gone to places where people fell all over themselves to prove they weren't prejudiced, and the very way they did it showed they weren't comfortable with it in their own hearts.

51:15 And we felt we didn't have to be white. But in order to be at home in this place and hear the truth and love the God who's loved and served in this place. I say that to God's praise because that didn't happen overnight. I could name the groups of people who had deep prejudices to blacks.

51:36 And God used Pastor Blaze as one of the great instruments to break that down initially, preparing us for the day when there'd be this tremendous influx of blacks. I look back. Had God's marvelous ways of dealing with us as a people. But there must be the grace of mutual acceptance.

51:56 And then in the sixth place, there must be the grace of mutual service. And here I must just quote the text as time is getting away so quickly. Galatians 5, 13 to 15. We're not to use our liberty as an excuse for indulging sin to the gratification of our own flesh and to the stumbling of our bodies.

52:17 Our brethren, but Paul says, use your liberty now as the means of serving your brethren in love. Through love be servants one to another. Ephesians 5, 21. The five participles that follow the present imperative of the verb.

52:39 Be ye being filled with the Holy Spirit. And how does a Spirit-filled life manifest itself? Spirit-filled life. Speaking, singing, making melody.

52:51 And the fifth of those participles is submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ. A man full of the Spirit is not for self-importance. He has been given in principle the grace to serve his brethren. Jesus said, he that would be great among you, let him be a table waiter, a deacon.

53:20 He that would be greatest, let him be doulos, let him be slave of all. Is it wrong to have aspirations to be first in the realm of the spiritual? No. The Lord says, you want to be first?

53:36 Then be last. Take the place of serving your brethren. It's interesting to watch. I've watched in the cafeteria no fewer than about seven or eight times this week.

53:50 I've tipped up paper napkins on the floor. Many of you, my brethren, have walked right by and I think your eyes saw them as well as mine. Why didn't you stoop to pick it up? Is it beneath you to serve the staff and your brothers and sisters who inadvertently dropped a napkin?

54:14 You say, Pastor Martin, that's ludicrous. No, it isn't. When you're seeking to cultivate a servant's heart, you look for every opportunity to do a servant's deed. Isn't that exactly the lesson Jesus taught?

54:24 He was there with you. He was there with you. He was there with you. He laid aside his disciples.

54:30 What was the servant's deed in that context? To wash feet. So he laid aside his outer garments, girded himself with a towel and stooped and washed the disciples' feet. Oh, how we need to cultivate the grace of mutual service, not in some great big thing.

54:49 That little phone call that simply says, I was praying for you this morning, are there any special burdens you want to share with me? No big deal. Nobody organizes it. You don't need a three-day visit.

54:59 seminar. You have a heart to serve your brethren. I've got a Saturday afternoon without a shopping list of projects. And you know someone who's a widow, someone who's just moved into a new home and they had to get one that was barely livable in order to afford it. And you know they're striving to make it presentable for the children and for the family and for Christian hospitality. Don't embarrass the brother and have to have an announcement made. You've got eyes, you can see. You've got a skill, maybe just the skill of pushing a scrub brush with some Lysol and some old naphtha soap. And you offer yourself. Brethren, these are

55:49 the things that foster unity according to my Bible. Submitting yourselves one to another, the grace of mutual service. And then the seventh, grace that must be cultivated among us if we would maintain and grow in our unity is the grace of mutual biblical resolution of differences. The grace of mutual biblical resolution of differences. If the sins are such that if you try to throw the blanket over it, it keeps working a hole in the blanket and growing up and staring you in the face. And you throw another blanket over it, and you throw another blanket over it, and you throw another blanket over it, and it grows up through again in sprouts. Now it's time to go to your brother or sister in the spirit of Proverbs which says, as an attractive earring on a beautiful ear, so is a wise, no, as an attractive earring on an attractive woman, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. A wise reprover. And you go to your brother or sister and say, look, I'm sorry

56:59 the problem's probably with me. And it may be that I completely misconstrued something, but you remember three weeks ago, yes. Well, in that situation, you remember, yes. Well, for the life of me, I can't get the thing out of my mind. It appeared to me that. And you come with that disposition, and it may well be as it is so often with me. The person will then say, sorry, it never occurred to me. I've had to say that dozens of times and say, brother, looking at it, through your eyes, I can see how that had all the appearance of crass insensitivity. Will you forgive me for even putting that grief in your heart for three weeks? It's the last thing in the world I do. Sure, I forgive you. You embrace in the lumps gone from under the rock. A determination to deal with differences in a biblical manner. If thy brother sinned, go tell him his fault between thee and him alone.

58:02 Don't tell it to an elder. How many hundreds of times through the years have I had to say to people when they call me and say, Pastor, I don't know what to do in this situation. Well what is it? Well, someone has done, I said, oh, don't say anymore. Don't mention the name. Don't mention the thing. I want to ask a simple question. Have you gone to them? No. Well, do you need some light as to how to go? In what way to go? Don't mention names? Don't mention the situation? I'll be glad to give you the biblical principles that ought to guide you, but at least Jack that's there. Well, more than anything, I had to say to him, oh, như But until you've done what the Word of God says,

58:44 to deal biblically in the resolution of differences, oh, how peace and unity would prevail among us. And here I refer, of course, to the Matthew 18, 15, Luke 17, 3, and parallel passages. Well, those are the graces. And I wanted to spend most of my time on the graces, the positive.

Six Sins to Mortify for Church Unity

59:05 These graces must be cultivated, and they can only be cultivated as we ourselves are living in communion with Christ and feeding upon Christ crucified, have a growing awareness of our own sin and a growing appreciation of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. Evangelical motives and an evangelical spirit pervading our hearts will cause these graces to prevail. To grow and to flourish. But now there are certain vices that must be mortified.

59:42 They must be mortified. If they are not put to death, unity, peace, and harmony will not grow. They will not mature among us. And let me list very quickly several of them.

59:57 Number one, we must mortify the sin of allowing anyone or anything to rival our supremacist. Number two, we must Jenna have continual allegiance to Christ. The quickest way to create disunity in a church is for the corporate loyalty to be divided between Christ and someone or something else. Think of that.

60:25 What is it that brought us together in the first place? We were called in one hope of our calling. The Holy Spirit showed us our sin. Through the Gospel he shewed us the glory of God in the face of Christ.

60:40 We discovered him, as he himself said, as the pearl of great price. And in repentance and faith, whatever else was true, Christ was given the place of supreme allegiance and affection.

60:55 That became the very thing that bound us to others who found in Christ the pearl of great price, the treasure hid in the field. And when you have a group of people who can corporately say, for to me to live is Christ, there you have a united people. But what happened to the Corinthians? They began to divide their loyalty to Christ, to the very servants of Christ that God had blessed them with.

61:22 And supreme attachment was divided between Christ and Paul and Apollos and Cephas. And so Paul had to say, look, you're all wrong. I was not crucified for you. You were not baptized into my name.

61:40 What are ministers? They are not instruments sent of God to divide your supreme loyalty to Christ. They are ministers of Christ to enhance and deepen and increase your supreme loyalty to Christ. And whenever in any church that supreme loyalty to Christ is shared with anyone else or anything else, there the seeds of disunity have been sown.

62:13 And it's only a matter of time before the ugly plants will flourish. Second sin that must constantly be mortified is the sin of pride. Proverbs 13, 10, Only by pride comes contention.

62:35 When a man has too high an opinion of his notions, his perspectives, A woman, she knows better than the combined wisdom of the elders and the deacons in an administrative decision. Of course, she hasn't been privy to the 8, 10, 12, 14 hours of fact-finding and prayer and wrestling, but she knows instinctively there's a better way to do it. And that man, he has not been recognized as one who's spiritually minded, who thinks in biblical categories, who has a deposit of divinely given wisdom and holy sagacity. That's why he's not been recognized as an elder or deacon.

63:17 But there's not a decision made by the recognized leaders that he can't think of four other better ways to do it. And he's ready to tell anyone who'll listen to him this great wealth of his wisdom and insight. And what do you have? Division.

63:31 Because there are other proud people like him that pop up each other's pride by saying, and criticizing the decision of those who are in places of leadership. Only by pride cometh contention.

63:47 Never are we more like the devil than when we have unmortified pride in our hearts. Never forget it. The devil is the devil because of pride.

63:58 The thing that makes you most like him in the second and third place is when you lie and when you hate. He's a murderer and a liar. But he is the devil because he would not keep his property. And he's a murderer and a liar in every last name.

64:12 And he's a murderer and a liar in every last name. It just means that you're making such a big risk to us that we're going back to what we once believed. Why? Because if we don't love God, we don't love you.

64:24 That means we're going back to the wrong people. Because if you just love God, I'm going to be the one who's going to help you. I am the one who'll save you. If I don't love you, I will save you.

64:37 Oh, dear brethren, cry to God. Let God, fissures in the church at Ephesus. How it must have broke his heart when he charged those elders in Acts chapter 20. And he said, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock of God in the which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to perform the role of shepherds to the flock.

65:00 Shepherd the flock of God which he has purchased with his own blood. And what's the particular area of his concern? I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you not sparing the flock wolves from without but from among your own selves. Did he mean the Ephesian church in general or did he mean in the language and the context would bear it from among the ranks of their own leaders? These were elders he was speaking to. From among your own selves arise speaking perverse things. Why? In order to draw away the disciples after them. They feel they don't have a prominent enough place of leadership. So they concoct notions around which

65:55 to gather a greater following for themselves. That's exactly what Paul understood would happen. And you have a classic example of that in that ugly man describing the disciples. He described in 3 John 9 and 10 diatrophies. Who loves the work of God? No. Who loves the people of God? No. He loves to have the preeminence. And what did he do? He caused division. He would not receive the brethren. He would not even receive the apostle John. He wouldn't receive trusted brethren. He cast out all rivals to his place with absolute insensitivity.

66:38 To biblical norms. Why? He was possessed with the sin of carnal personal ambition. Dear people remember this. It's Christ's church. He bought it with his own blood. He governs it by his word and his spirit. And when it is his church and every member acknowledges it including every elder, every deacon, everyone in any position of delegated responsibility, it is Christ's church. He bought it. He governs it. He rules it. And he alone is to receive the glory for any blessing received or dispensed. What a blessed unity is then experienced. No matter the measure and nature of the gifts that Christ may deposit in any given church, there never need be carnal personal ambition motivating anyone. In that place of leadership or among the rank and file of the people of God, the fourth sin that we must constantly mortify if we would increase our unity is this. The activity of a sinfully loose tongue and the carnal opened ear.

67:59 And the two always go together. The activity of a sinfully loose tongue and the carnal opened ear. These are what I call best of the best. And the best of the best. And the best of the best. And the best of the best. And the best of the best.

68:15 Evilish twins. A carnally loosened tongue can do no damage unless there is also a carnally opened ear. A loose tongue soon gets tired of spilling out words when no one receives them. And need I tell you from James chapter 3, the damage done by a loose tongue, go through the many Proverbs, where it speaks in Proverbs 16, 28 and 18, 18, 8 and 26, 20 to 22, the words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels that go down into the innermost parts.

68:58 The words of a whisperer separateth chief friends. He that harpeth on a matter separateth friends.

69:11 People have spent years cultivating friendships only to have them utterly broken and brought to nothing. Why? The words of a whisperer. But you see, the whispering tongue must have an evil ear.

69:28 And I want you to look at Proverbs 17, 4. It is the one text I want you to get through the eye gate as well. It's so crucial.

69:39 It says an evildoer gives heed to wicked lips, and a liar or falsehood gives ear to a mischievous tongue. You see, it's a carnal tongue that is attracted to a carnal ear. And it's a carnal ear that's seeking out a carnal tongue. I had someone just this week come to me and mention the name of another brother.

70:07 And I said, whoa, stop. I said, you ever heard me mention that brother? No. Ever heard me speak of him on the tape?

70:15 No. You ever heard me speak of him in public? In a door? In a derogatory way?

70:19 No. Have I spoken to you? No. I said, then don't you introduce the name of another brother and seek to get me to speak evil.

70:26 I shut him up. Why? Because God has an evildoer who has wicked lips.

70:42 You're judged not only to do with your tongue. Horrible disunity in local churches. When people have had carnal ears open to carnal tongues. And as James says, behold how great a forest fire is started by a little match.

71:05 May God help us to guard our tongues and our ears. And then I just list the others and I'm done. We must mortify the sin of unjust prejudice and suspicion. That's what brought fissure in the churches of Galatians 2, 11 through 14a.

71:28 Peter drew back, separated himself, and Barnabas, son of consolation, was carried away with Peter's dissimulation. Peter's dissimulation. Think of it. Years after Pentecost.

71:42 Years after the Lord took him to the household of Cornelius. Peter was sitting there and eating away with Gentiles enjoying pork chops and hot dogs that weren't kosher. Having a grand time. Until some of his Finkelstein and Rubenstein friends showed up and sit with the Jews and eat kosher food.

72:06 And after a while even Barnabas said, well maybe I ought not to be found with these Gentile dogs either. What happened? They gave way to residual unjust prejudice and suspicion and it brought division in the church. Oh dear people, how we need to cry to God to put to death in our hearts suspicion of each other based upon their race or ethnic background.

72:34 Suspicion of one another's motives. We need to cry to God that these things would be put to death. And then finally, one of the surest ways to create division and not to foster unity is the sin of allowing divisive people to remain in the church. The sin of allowing divisive people to remain in the church.

73:04 Divisiveness is such a sin that if it is known and addressed and not repented of, Romans 16.7. and 18 and Titus 3.10 and 11 are as plain as the nose on my face.

73:20 Mark those that are causing the divisions contrary to the teaching which you received and have nothing to do with them. He that is divisive, he that is an heretic, a divisive man, after a second and third admonition reject, knowing that such a one is perverse. 1 Corinthians 5.11 No slanderer shall enter the kingdom of heaven, therefore one whose pattern of life is slandering has no business remaining in the visible church of Christ as an impenitent slanderer.

74:05 And under the guise of being loving and patient, many church divisions and the absence of unity are godly. God's judgment on churches that would not do the dirty work of biblically balanced church discipline. It is the divine deposit of the spiritual body's immune system and as God has given to the physical body, those things that are triggered when invading bacteria or viruses would destroy us, the body reacts and rejects. So spirit directed, biblically based church discipline is the deposit in the spiritual body of a divinely conceived immune system. And if the immune system breaks down and your church has got spiritual aids, it'll die! It'll die! If you get comfortable tolerating the slanderer, it won't be long before you get tolerating the thief and then the immoral and then what else?

75:18 You say that can't happen! You don't even realize. Read Revelation 2 and 3. It happened while one apostle was still alive.

75:24 When I read those seven letters to the seven churches, I hit my head and I says, God, how could it happen so quickly? There was a prophetess in the first place. What in the world are you doing, allowing a woman in such a place of prominence? And her doctrine is one that encourages fornication and they won't cast her out...

75:52 A horrible way to give over the church to division by refusing to deal with sin. to deal with divisive people in a biblical manner. That sin of ungodly timidity must be mortified, and we must have the grace to pursue biblical discipline for the good and health of the body of Christ. Well, this is not an exhaustive list.

Conclusion and Prayer

76:18 I had to be selected, and much of the selectivity was based upon the things that I not only see in the Word, but have found come up again and again and again as the root causes of either the waning of unity or those graces which were the fostering of that unity. I don't speak as a theorist. The dear people at Montville have wonderful patience, having put up with me some of them for 28 years. So I'm not speaking in a vacuum.

76:53 I'm not speaking just having come fresh out of seminary with some new ideas. I'm not speaking out of the matrix of some situation that's culturally insulated. No. As some of you know, God in His mercy has mixed all kinds of people in that assembly from different racial and ethnic and sociological backgrounds and all of the rest.

77:18 And there are times when I stand and I marvel when I see them with one voice and one heart praising the God and Father of our Lord Jesus. Amen. I know the only reason is because these graces have been implanted and are kept alive by the presence and power of Christ and the minute He removes them, we've had it. And by the grace of God, those sins are being mortified by the same grace of Christ.

77:44 So may we, as we contemplate the unity of our churches, look to our blessed Lord Jesus to do His work of imparting every needed grace and grant us grace to mortify every sin that would cause us to sin. That would militate against that unity. Let us pray.

78:09 Our Father, how we thank You that in the Scriptures You have given to us a sufficient rule for faith and practice. And how we plead with You that by the power of Your Holy Spirit we may be marked as a people who abound in the graces which foster church unity. That we may be a people diligently mortified and glorifying every sin that would undermine the unity of our churches. Gracious God, if our hearts are grieved, how must Your heart be grieved to see churches brought to ruin and to shame and to public scandal because someone wants his way on such piddling issues. Because someone else will not forgive a brother or sister who has wronged him. Oh God, in mercy, so deal with us that none of us will ever be the instrument of disrupting that unity for which Christ Himself prays and which is the validation through the church of His identity and of ours as the new community in Him. Seal these things to our hearts and give us grace to walk in their light.

79:32 We plead in Jesus' name. Amen.