Thank you, Diane and Marty. Well, if you see the verses and you know that there's 26 verses in John 17, you will know that I once again planned my steps of how many, how many sermons it would take to get through the high priestly prayer and I was wrong. Message today is titled Perfected in Unity. Now, as we near the concluding verses of this high priestly prayer, we see our Lord make several comments about unity and oneness. When you see or hear a call for unity within the church, I would warn you to exercise caution. And you might think, well, that seems an awful strange statement to make, brother. Unity within the church, the body of believers, is extremely important. However, unity at the expense of truth is no unity at all and should be avoided. We must ever be on guard against this unity despite truth or unity regardless of truth because our unity must be grounded in truth. True unity within the church must be rooted and grounded in the truth of God's word, and specifically who Jesus is, what he has done, and what he continues to do. So if you make the natural conclusion there, unity with God is the most important aspect of unity amongst us. Unity at all cost is often heralded, even within the confines of a local church. But that statement is quite the minefield to try to navigate. One of Jesus' primary points throughout this prayer, and especially as he comes to the close of this prayer, is that true unity must be anchored in truth. We'll expand on that as we go through these verses a bit more, but I did find a quote from Martin Lloyd-Jones that I really enjoyed, and I'm gonna share that with y'all. It won't be on the board, because it's pretty long. But here's what Martin Lloyd-Jones has to say about unity and truth. There are many people in this world who call themselves Christians, yet who, alas, regard the Lord Jesus Christ as nothing but a man. Well, all I can say to this is that I have no fellowship with such people. I have no unity with them, for they take from the very foundation and basis of my faith and my whole position and standing. What do these people believe about the work of the Lord Jesus Christ? What is their view of his death? Is it a substitutionary death? Is it the Son of God dying? Because that is the only way whereby my sins might be forgiven. And therefore the essential preliminary to my becoming a child of God and a partaker of the divine nature. If it is essential and the other man says it is not, how can it be possible for there to be unity between us? And the same is true with all these cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith. Some of the other cardinal doctrines that Lloyd-Jones would be talking about would be the virgin birth. the deity of Christ, although he does reference it in his quote, that Jesus is the only savior, that Jesus' death was an actual substitutionary atonement, that the resurrection is true, that our justification is by grace alone through faith alone. We also must believe in the inspiration, the inerrancy, and the sufficiency of scripture in order to have true unity. And there are others, but those are some of the ones that bubble to the top. Unity, yes, but with restrictions, God himself is placed. Jesus began this prayer back in verse one with the request or his desire for his return to glory, which was imminent. Then he began to pray for all these believers that were present with him, these 11 that were with him. Now he concludes or near the conclusion and his petitions for God to protect, to purify these that he's been praying for and us, and their unity is inclusive of all who will believe, not just the 11 there with him. So with all that said, let's turn to our text. John 17, beginning in verse 20. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word. that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one, I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me, and love them even as you love me. Let's pray. Father, we are quite near the conclusion of this high priestly prayer, and how enriching, edifying it has been, how wonderful that we can read the very words that our Savior took to the Father. Lord, how encouraging it is to know that 2,000 years ago, on the eve of Jesus' arrest, he was praying for me, and he was praying for all those that know him today. God, let this really saturate our hearts and let us be mindful of these words about unity and oneness and what that means and what it does not mean and let us strive to be unified in the body of Christ. Father, someone here today does not know the Lord Jesus as Savior. I pray that today would be the day that you would remove that heart of stone, replace it with the heart of flesh, and bring them to the salvific knowledge of what Jesus has done for them. Lord, we love you. We thank you. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Seems extra quiet in here today. Maybe it's that, like that dehumidifier back there. It's not running or something. It's okay. The opening of this section, we have this verse before us that I've referenced several times throughout the high priesthood prayer already, right? That Jesus is praying for us today, sitting here in Beaver Dam, Tennessee. 2,000 years ago, our Lord was praying, not just for those 11, but for you. And not just broadly, not just for Crossroads Baptist Church, the building, but for you individually, by name. That should just, it should do something to you. Before we continue into this request for unity, and in the body, unity within the body presently and perfectly, it's important to recognize this verse, as we've referenced, says some things. Now I want you to notice something else here. This is the third time in 20 verses to this point in the high priesthood prayer, the third time for which the Lord says in his prayer, this is what I'm not doing. Jesus says, this is what I'm not doing. The first reference was in verse nine. Verse nine, he says, I ask on their behalf, I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given me for they are yours. So the first thing he said he's not praying for, he's not praying for the unbelieving world. He's praying for the elect of Christ, all of which will be regenerated for all these are the ones he is the high priest for. Just as the Jewish high priest was the high priest just for the Jewish nation, Christ is saying, I'm praying for those that you will give to me, Father. And not for the others. Verse 15 is another time he says he's not praying for something. I do not ask you to take them out of the world. but to keep them from the evil one. Specifically, our Lord says, I'm not asking you, Father, to take them out of this world. And as we go further, we start seeing why. To not be removed from the world, but to be protected while we are here as pilgrims and sojourners on this earth. Now here, verse 20, he says he isn't praying just for these 11 men alone, but for all who will believe throughout all the ages. And he says something else specific here too, doesn't he? Through the testimony, who will believe in me through their word. So now he's referencing back to the 11, through their word. Think of all the believers over the last 2,000 years. And all yet to come before the Lord comes back, all these were on Jesus' heart and mind in that time of prayer. His prayer extends to all the Father will give to him, including us, those whose name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world he is praying for in this very moment. His intercessory prayer for all believers that is still going on today was made manifest or realized right here at this moment on the night of his arrest. I mean, the next chapter, they're coming to get him. and he will allow them to arrest him. Again, emphasizing salvation is not through works, through the word and testimony. Ephesians 2, 8, 9, for by grace you've been saved through faith and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, so that no one may boast. By grace, through gifted faith by which men can and will believe. The balance of divine sovereignty and man's responsibility are still on display. John 644, no one can come to me unless the father who sends me draws him and I'll raise him up in the last day. And responding in faith, Romans 10, 8 and 10. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith, which we are preaching. That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. For with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation. And in verse 20, Jesus is saying, their word. Their word. Jesus was about to be gone physically, right? death, burial, resurrection, 40 days, and then he ascends. That's where he's at now at the right hand of the Father. Their testimony and also don't miss this that these men along with a couple of others, the Apostle Paul being the primary one, were the human instruments of which God used to write down the New Testament we have right here before us. Some would hear their words physically, wouldn't they? I mean, when Pentecost happened and these men were empowered by the Holy Spirit and they would go out preaching and many were saved by their direct words. But think about how many more for the past 2,000 years have read the words that God inspired them to write and God used that to bring them to saving faith. The overwhelming majority would have heard the inspired word through the written word that God gave them to write down. Jude 17 says this, but you, beloved, must remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Throughout the last 2,000 years, true faithful preaching has come through the preaching and teaching of these words. These words. Spirit inspired, spirit empowered, spirit infused, This is God's Word. Romans 10, 17. So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. What is the Word of Christ? How do we know the Word is of Christ? We have it, guys. We have the Holy Word. Faith given in context of hearing the Word of Christ. Now Jesus is praying for all who would believe here, and that the human instrument would be through the proclamation of the word. Verse 21, as he goes on in this prayer, that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. He said, Lord heard me when I said it was too quiet, now it's starting to rain. Unity is now the focus in this prayer. Oneness presently. Now I want to underline presently because he's speaking about presently. Presently for us now, presently for them then, because when we transition to next week and the reason I felt fit to separate the two is because next week we're gonna talk about the future unity, the glorified unity yet to come. Here he's speaking about presently. presently between one another and in unity within the Godhead. Do you see that in this verse? Unity within the Godhead. This verse helps us to see Jesus isn't referencing outside physical unity, at least not primarily, although we do gather physically, right? But he's talking about an inward unity, primarily. It's because of the regenerative work of the spirit within our hearts that we are joined together with other believers, that we are adopted into God's family. that we call fellow believers, brothers and sisters in Christ because of our unity within Jesus himself. And the first importance is our unity with Jesus. Without that unity, there's no hope for unity. First Corinthians 617, but the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. Oneness with the Lord is by necessity unity with other believers. Galatians 3, 28 and 29. There's neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free man. There's no male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ and you're Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise. Now, this isn't some crazy whack job. Some of the crazy whack jobs out there try to take this and say, well, this is talking about all this non-binary, all this kind of stuff. No, it's talking about we're all one in Christ. The distinctiveness is our distinctiveness from the world because we're in Christ. Our unity is within Christ. That whether you're saved out of Judaism or whether you're a Gentile convert, it does not matter because you're one in Christ. We studied the book of Galatians a couple years ago, and that's a big theme of that, is what they were trying to add to the gospel message, specifically circumcision, but broadly speaking, that they had to jump through all these hoops. No, no, he said, you're all one if you're adopted into the family. If you've been regenerated, you're all one in Christ. But what does that look like in the body of Christ? I can say all these things and think that's all good doctrine and thank you. How's it applicable though? What does it look like in the life of the church? Well, Paul addresses that in his letter to the Roman church, to the Philippian church, to the Ephesian churches. He addresses it. Romans 12, 9 and 10, let love be without hypocrisy, by abhorring what is evil, clinging to what is good, being devoted to one another in brotherly love, giving preference to one another in honor. That's one way unity looks, manifest itself in the church. Philippians 2, 1 through 4, we get four very applicable teachings from Paul. Therefore, if there's any encouragement in Christ, if there's any consolation of love, if there's any fellowship of the spirit, there's that oneness with the spirit, if any affection and compassion fulfill my joy, that you think the same way. By maintaining the same love, being united in spirit, thinking on one purpose, doing nothing from selfless ambition or vain glory, but with humility of mind regarding one another is more important than yourselves. not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Now, there's four major points to be taken from this text in regards to unity. Unity with the Spirit leads us to the first one, think the same way, being like-minded. Now, let me pause. Even in this group of believers, There's a lot of different personalities. There's a lot of different ways that you think about things. And that's not just the gender difference, because there is a difference in the way that male and female think about things, but even individually, we think about things differently. It's not speaking about agreeing on everything, but on the primaries, the things we talked about early on, we must be in agreement. We must be in agreement. If someone is here today and doesn't believe in the deity of Christ, that Christ truly is God and that he truly is man, then you're in the wrong church. If you don't believe in the virgin birth, because that's what I'm going to teach and preach and that's what the Bible says. And we could go through all the list of the other ones that I talked about too, right? The death, burial, and resurrection. That he actually, he was a substitutionary atonement that Jesus' death on the cross actually paid the penalty for the sins of all those that would come to him. Those are primaries. And I'm not trying to run anybody off, but I'll say it again, that's what we're gonna hold to, unless y'all run me off, that's what we're gonna hold to. If you don't believe that, we can't have unity. We're not of the same spirit. No, we can talk, but we can't have Christian fellowship. Colossians 3.16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratefulness in your hearts to God. The word dwelling richly, energized within us because of the work of the spirit within us. Philippians 2.2 is really where we get the most of these from. Philippians 2.2 is really the focus of these four verses. Fulfill my joy that you think the same way, we've talked about that already, by maintaining the same love, being united in spirit, thinking on one purpose. So true unity is connected to maintaining the same love. Maintain the same love. Now this isn't some emotional commitment being equal, okay? I'm trying to figure out how to say this correctly, but everybody in the context of this local congregation, you don't all love everybody in this congregation equally. You love your wife different than you love, but there's an equality in love in the fact that you love in a Christian brotherhood, this agape love, this love you should have for brothers and sisters in Christ. So within the body, There's this agape love, this commitment to loving the brothers and sisters. And let's be honest, some of us are easier to love than others. And even the personality aspect makes one person harder or easier to love. But in this unity here, within the body of believers, there's a commitment to love them despite those differences you might have. Or the personality quirks, it might not mesh quite right because we're one body. And I'm not just talking about this, I'm talking about anybody that truly is a believer. It starts here, because this is who we're with the most in regards to worshiping the Lord, but it expands to the universal church, as it's so often called. You love them because you are in Christ together. You're in Christ together. And all that is because the love poured out within us. We don't generate that on our own. We can't do that. I told you before, the church, is an odd looking duck to the outside world when they look at the different personalities and socioeconomic structure and stuff like that. But a true body of believers has all kinds of different people in it. Now, it's generally gonna be made up of the community you live in though, right? I mean, because of nationalistic and ethnic boundaries and that kind of thing. But there should be a lot of diversity within the community. I'm not talking about DEI stuff. Y'all know me well enough to know I'm not going on that path at all. Romans 5, 5. And hope does not put to shame because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Through his spirit poured out within our hearts, that is the way in which we can love other brothers and sisters in Christ despite our differences. Back to Philippians 2, 2, this primary one I'm looking at. Unity is united in spirit. United in spirit. This speaks to being deeply committed to the same spiritual things. Deeply committed to the same spiritual things. That you truly want to see God's name glorified. That you truly want to see brothers and sisters in Christ growing in the knowledge and wisdom of the Lord. That you truly want to see other believers growing in spiritual maturity. that you want to pour into them and you want them to pour into you spiritually. Admonishing, teaching, holding you accountable even. Holding you accountable. It's by contrast, it's the exact opposite of prideful ambition, selfishness, envy, jealousy. It's the opposite of all that. There's no room for jealousy within the body of Christ. No room for selfishness within the body of Christ. Are you united in spirit? Fourthly, thinking on one purpose, he says. Thinking on one purpose. Well, what in the heck does that mean, brother? Let's put the four of these together. Same-minded, like-minded, loving one another, united in spirit. Because of these things, we should be seeking the same things. We should be seeking the same things. But what is that? What does that really mean? You still haven't explained it. Paul told him in chapter one, before he gets to this section, in chapter one, he says this, Philippians one, verse 27. Only live your lives in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or I remain absent, I will hear about your circumstances, that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, contending together for the faith of the gospel. Are you standing together with one mind, faithfully contending for the sake of the gospel? Is that evangelism? Yes, that's a big part of it. But it's also within the body. Unity's in truth and it's in love and you can't divorce those two. Christ doesn't divorce those two. None of the apostles divorced those two. We can't do it either. Truth and love are wrapped up in the unity of the Christian brotherhood. never divorce them. Ephesians 4 verse 13 through 15. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ so that we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness of deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, that is, Christ, contending for the truth, and doing so united, together. Jude again, Jude 3. Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you exhorting that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. Contend for the truth, fight for the truth, stand firm on the truth in unity of the united front. The true church must put truth as the most emphasized importance in unity. Now there are many individuals and groups, sects, cults, et cetera, that call themselves Christian, but deny some of these basic tenets we've talked about. The Jehovah Witnesses being one that we're familiar with, the Mormons, we could go on and on, there's several. Does that mean you can't talk to them? Yeah, you can talk to them. Does that mean you can have fellowship with them as brothers and sisters in Christ? No, you can't. You can't do it. Not because Greg said so, but because Jesus said so. This unity is on the mind of Christ as he is coming to the end of the high priestly prayer. a present and true unity as in the Godhead. He said, I want it to be like the unity within the Godhead, and guess what? We can't get there. The Spirit brings into that unity within the Godhead. As the Father's in the Son and the Son is in the Father, the reality of the true believer is in unity with God. When I talk about the truth, that's where the truth starts. If your unity's not with God as he has shown himself and as he's revealed himself, then all the other unity is just some kind of man-made stuff. The Spirit poured out at Pentecost is the way in which believers were instantly united and all believers ever since are because of the pouring out of the Spirit. Acts 2, 4, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for also by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. It's because of the Spirit's work that you are united. because of the finished work of Christ that you are united. It's because of the God's plan and purpose before the foundation of the world that you are united. All glory goes to God in our unity, but yet we are walking out this, are we not? And so we've looked at some of these verses like Philippians 2.2. Yesterday morning, we had our men's breakfast. Tony volunteered to lead the men's breakfast, the short devotional we do. He turns to Ephesians 4. I let him finish what he had to do, and you men that were there yesterday, you're like, man, this sounds kinda like what Tony talked about yesterday. I told him afterwards, I was like, we're gonna be in a lot of the same places that you just brought up. The providence of God on display once again, because I asked him, I didn't tell him why I asked him, but as we're standing in line to eat, I said, brother, did you have something on your heart and on your mind? He said, no, I just wanted to volunteer to do it and just had to scramble to find something. He found exactly what we're talking about right now. So with that said, Ephesians four. Verse four and six, there is one body and one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Who is all? It's all the called, because he's just talking about those people right here. Unbelievers don't have the Holy Spirit. How can they be united with you? Think about that. The one spirit is the indwelling of the spirit in the believer. So that's who he's talking to because the world does not have that, does not have him, is not united with God. Actually, quite the opposite, against God. Even if they're not militant about it, they're against God if they're outside of Christ. The son sought the father to be glorified and the son is glorified through that glory and the finished work that the father gave him to do. The church is sharing in that unity with God and with each other, share the common commitment to the glory of God. That should be your utmost desire, that God be glorified in your life, in your walk, in your relationships, in your marriage. 1 Corinthians 10, 31 says it better than I just did. Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory God. We are also to be united in mission. United in mission, verse 21 tells us, so the world may believe that you sent me. That the world may believe that you sent me. In eternity past, God chose to give to Christ a bride by the redemption of a people that he would purchase himself. He would take on flesh, he would die, he would be resurrected, and He would die as a propitiation for the sins of his people. And call many sons to glory. Our mission is to share that message. To share the message of redemption that's found only in Christ Jesus. This is the main reason we're not taking up when we're saved, is it not? To share the message. The currently redeemed, the presently united, are to share the gospel message. The Great Commission, this is the last thing Jesus told his disciples before he was brought up, is it not? Go therefore, make disciples of all nations. The last two verses we're gonna look at, well actually, not really the last two, but the last two in our line of thinking and reasoning here. Verse 22, the glory which you have given me I've given to them that they may be one just as we are one. I in them and you in me that they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me. The father and son united in truth and glory which has been bestowed on true believers. The church is to be unified in that truth Romans 15, five and six. Now may the God of perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind and with one accord, with one another according to Christ Jesus. So that with one accord, you may be with one voice, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1, 27, 28. Where'd you read verse 27? 27, 28. Only live your lives in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear about your circumstances, that you're standing firm in one spirit with one mind, contending together for the faith of the gospel. Verse 28. In no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you and that too from God. You might think that's a little confusing. Listen, we share the same message, whether rejected or accepted. That's what he's saying here. We share the message. We proclaim the truths of who God is and what he has done. It's not up to us to save anyone. It's not up to us whether the message is rejected or accepted. But above all, in the unity in the Godhead, do not change the message. Do not change the message. It's not our message. It better not be your message. You're a part of that message if you've been saved, right? But it's not your message, it's God's message. Does God often use your testimony to help bring somebody to Christ? He does. But your testimony saves no one. It's the glory of the gospel in Christ Jesus and what he did that saves. As we get ready to come to the end here, let me say this. I got more time than I thought I did. Doctrine's important. Doctrine's important. That is the truth of God's word, what he has revealed to us about himself. What does justification mean? What is sanctification? Doctrine is important. Rightly dividing the word of truth is what doctrine's all about. Now, some churches stay away from teaching and preaching the depth of doctrine. They just won't go into it. Well, we might confuse the people. We might lose somebody. Wrong answer. God's people need to know about God. You need the word rightly divided. Now I'm not the best at that, but I try through the Spirit leading me to do so. Many say they won't do it. Here's really what it boils down to. Either the person who's delivering the message doesn't understand it enough to do it, or they're scared of it dividing. They're scared of division. Because listen, whenever you start peeling back the layers of some of this deeper doctrine, it does upset people. It upsets true believers that have believed for years and years and years. There are certain things you read and you're like, that's not the tradition I've heard for 20 years. But what does the God say? What does the Lord say? Doctrine does divide, church. I'm not gonna try to hide from that. Doctrine divides. Sometimes it's healthy division. Sometimes it's unhealthy division. Doctrine divides, but you know what I say? If it does, so be it. If doctrine divides, so be it. because it divides truth from error. Spurgeon once commented about discerning doctrine and discerning things in general and heresy and that kind of thing. And he said, the difference between right and wrong is really the difference between right and almost right. Right and almost right. The truth is too important to be hidden away. And God's people need God's word. Y'all need God's word. The lost world must hear it too. That's the means God uses to bring them to salvation. It's also the means of which it shows their condemnation is just. The message must be consistent. John MacArthur says this. A commitment to proclaiming sound doctrine is what defines a solid local church. Let me say that again. A commitment to proclaiming sound doctrine is what defines a healthy local church. Father and son are united in holiness, separate from sin, Isaiah 6.3. And one called out to another and said, holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Likewise, Hebrew 726. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. Church, we are free as believers from the penalty of sin. And we are free from the slavery of sin. But we still choose to step into it a lot. We're still influenced by it. We're still wrapped in sinful flesh. We're still left behind in this sinful world. We are united to Christ though. And we are to be pursuing holiness. This isn't some piety thing. This is we are to be pursuing holiness. We are set apart. Remember we talked about last week, sanctified to set apart? If you're set apart, you should be pursuing holiness. 1 Peter 2, 9. But you are a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You wanna see a mission statement for the believer? Look at that. Our unity with one another should radiate these truths, church. Should radiate these truths, should shine forth. Hebrews 12, 14. Pursue peace with all men and sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. We're to pursue it. Remember what I said earlier, it's gonna fall on deaf ears, you're gonna be cursed at sometimes, you're gonna be spit on, you're gonna be beaten. They did the same thing to Jesus. You're in good company. You don't change the message. But we also read of talking to the disciples about if they won't hear the message and you share the message and they hear it and you leave town and you shake the sand off your sandals and you keep on going. And you go to the next town or next person. Does the world see you united with Christ? Does the world see our church united with Christ? Firm in truth and firm in love. Do they see it in your marriage? Do they see it in your family, if you call yourself Christian? Listen, toleration of sin within the church obscures the glory of Christ and the proclamation of the truth. You can say this all day long, but if you're allowing it to happen in your backyard. If there must be separation within a local body, and it happens, some of y'all have been parts of separations within a local body, is it for holy reasons or is it for personal reasons? Now let me pause there for just a second. There are brothers and sisters in Christ in local denominations that the differences I might have with them are not the primaries, they might be the tertiary issues, but personally I can't worship there even though I would have, I believe in fellowship with them in a certain context. Some of the things we disagree on are strong enough in me, for me to say I can't worship there because I don't believe that, but it's not a salvific thing, it's something else. Are you manifesting the truth in your life? The unity with God, the individual proclamations, this should be evident within the context of the local church. It should be evident in your life. That's not to say that you're perfection. When I say perfected in unity, our perfection in unity is only in our unity with Christ. Our unity as a local body is not gonna be perfect. No matter how awesome the worship experience might be and how one-minded we are as a group, we're still a bunch of wrapped in sinful flesh people in here. So we're not gonna be perfect. We're gonna make mistakes. Our perfection and unity is in our unity with Christ Jesus. Notice this perfected unity is intricately connected to love, love within the Godhead, and how that love within the Godhead is also the love given to us. Chew on that. The love within that God has, the love poured out in you, upon you. Our only perfection is in our unity with Christ. Our only perfection is in our unity with Christ. In the next verse, verse 24, Jesus will expand on this, and we'll look at this next week, Lord willing, but I just wanna bring it up for a moment. This is about our future eternal unity, verse 24. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you love me before the foundation of the world. That's the future unity that awaited these men. They're living it now. The future glory awaiting all of us today in unity. A love from eternity past made the love within the Trinity and is also the love Jesus has for all those given to him by the Father. That's incomprehensible when you try to take that in. Father, the love between us, I want them to have it too. I want you to have it too. This love from God given by God and for God is the glue in which our unity is perfected. As verse 23 shows this unity in truth and love, it gives evidence to the world that our message, our mission, and our life are trustworthy and true. Think about that. The unity that we have, the unity that we share, the unity that we proclaim, the unity that we talk about in Christ Jesus and what he's done for us gives evidence to the world that our message, our mission, and our life are trustworthy and true. Y'all know if you're around a bunch of unbelievers and they know you're a Christian, you proclaim the name of Christ, they're waiting and looking for when you stumble, when you stub your toe, when you fall. The unity within the body also authenticates to the world the love of God for us. How do you respond in those tough times? This is a place where testimony really does come into play a lot, I think, especially if those of us, I say this all the time, but if you're saved later in life and people knew the kind of life you lived beforehand and they see the radical work that God has done in you, the people that have known you closest, they're like, I don't get it, and that's why all glory to God. Seeing our love for one another is also a cure. Cure your gathering together of bodies of Christ around the world. When the world sees the love that you have for somebody that for no reason they can make any sense out of, you would have a love for them and help them and do things for them, it's because the love of Christ poured out within your heart. It's because of the work of the Spirit, because of the unity of the believer. It's a testimony to God's love for us. It's a shining bright testimony to the love of God for us. As we close Ephesians four, I gotta cover all the verses Tony covered yesterday. Ephesians four, verse one through three. Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you've been called. with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being diligent to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Our unity is primarily, first and foremost, in our unity in Christ. But there's also a call for unity for believers. And our unity starts with that connection to Christ Jesus. Amen. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the proclamation of truth. We thank you that you have brought us into this great unity that we couldn't get to on our own, that you have pulled us in, that you have called us and given to us this salvific faith that we might believe and trust in you and all the riches and glories and the inheritance that is there for us. But more than any of it, it's because of our unity in Christ that you have brought us into the family, that you've adopted us. that you have saved us, Lord, and that we await a future unity where all that we know and trust and believe and feel today will be realized ultimately in our future glorification, that we might be where Christ is today. Lord, I don't wanna hasten anybody's departure, but I sure do look forward to that day. God, I pray if someone here today that none of this is truth to them, that nothing we've talked about, nothing we've looked at, that they are outside and they have heard the message. Lord, I pray that the soul has been prepared, that the seed would take root, and that you would bring another son or daughter to the throne. Lord, we praise your holy name and we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.