Romans 1 verse 1 again, and I think there will be a statement there that you will perhaps recognize as being distinctly Free Presbyterian. It is the little words separated onto the gospel. Separated onto the gospel. and I trust you have the handout sheet, plus, for those who may never have had it before, the booklet Separated Unto the Gospel. This is a booklet that has been developed and devised to just introduce people to the history, the doctrine, the standards, and the purpose of our Free Presbyterian Church. Now after all our messages on this series on the Church, And having, I think, covered a whole gamut of issues on the church's government, office bearers, standards and membership, we come now to what is a most necessary subject, our response to inter-church relations. In this present world we're being bombarded, and literally bombarded, with invitations and pressure of all kinds to get on board the ecumenical ship and to be a part of this great drive for church unity which covers the whole spectrum of Christianity. Now we need to define at the outset tonight the difference between church separation and isolation. There is a big difference and I want to guard tonight that we are not, never were and I trust never will be isolationists. The isolation would mean that we as a Free Presbyterian Church consider that there is no other church on earth where you can fellowship and serve the Lord. It would also mean that we could never invite a Baptist preacher to come and stand in this pulpit and deliver a sermon. It would mean that we couldn't do as we have done to invite ministers of the Bible Presbyterian Church, which is another denomination, to come and to minister in this congregation. It would also mean that I and other ministers of this church could not minister in any other church whatsoever. That's what isolationism would mean. Down through the years there has been a healthy distinction between evangelical churches and for centuries from the Reformation onward there have been various stripes of church affiliation. You have the Lutheran, which is distinctly German, of course, and then you have the Reformed, which comes from Geneva and many other European countries. You have Presbyterian, which is basically Scottish in its roots. You have Anglican, which is mostly English, although, again, scattered around the world. And then you have many Baptist churches, independent and denomination. Now these were distinctions amongst evangelicals. Some drew the line on their doctrine, some were Arminian, others were Calvinistic, others were adult Baptist only, others were sprinklers, some of course drew the line on their traditions. Now traditions arise sometimes out of very powerful personalities. Lutheranism for example and then there were various revivals out of which because of great evangelists movements and churches were born such as the work of John and Charles Wesley gave birth to the Methodist denomination. In Wales, there were various other revival preachers who gave rise to what is known the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists. If ever there was an oxymoron, that has to be it. How can you be Calvinistic and Methodist? We wonder. But that's what they called their church. They were reformed, but they also believed in holiness and discipleship. And they emphasized many things that later the Wesleys emphasized. George Whitfield was another great evangelist, but he never gave birth to a church or denomination. He was widely accepted in many churches, although for a time in his own church, the Anglicans, they locked him out and he had to preach in graveyards and fields instead of going inside the church building itself. Now today, of course, after all these years and centuries and generations, many of these churches still survive in name, and if you go to these different churches, you experience different types of church service. For example, there's a vast difference between going to an independent church than going along to a mission church or a reformed church, or perhaps a Baptist church of various stripes. And these are all distinctions which have developed through the various histories of all these churches. Now we do not call this wrong. These are natural divisions due to their histories, due to their emphasis on various aspects of Christian truth, and yet they are all within the peel of orthodoxy and evangelicalism. and there can be some degree of fellowship, there can be some degree of working together on aspects of the gospel. That has been the practice of most churches down through the generations. Yet, while we give this liberty for such distinctions, each church should believe the Bible from cover to cover. Each church should preach the gospel from A to Z. They should not be watering down the Word of God, nor changing the doctrines of truth. Otherwise, we could not have them come and preach in our pulpit, and I don't think they would want us to go and preach in their pulpit. Now, each one should be, as we say here in Romans 1 verse 1, separated unto the gospel. And where there is a Bible-believing church that is separated onto the gospel, we can have some degree of fellowship. Like as in June, when Lord willing, I'll be going to Singapore to preach for two weeks for the Bible Presbyterian. I most likely could not join that church. I could not agree to all their minutiae of doctrine. However, there are Many believers in that congregation, they're doing a good work for God. They are separated onto the gospel. I also rejoiced in an invitation to go and preach for the Filipino church in Richmond. I forget what their name was, Something Baptist Church. It's an independent fellowship. They don't believe in interference from any outside body. They're totally independent. I was just their guest speaker. And I don't think I'm wanting to sign up to join that particular church. Although again, many good people doing a good work for God. Because they too are separated unto the gospel. Now this is a positive statement I want you to notice. Not separated from, it is separated unto the gospel. And it is because of our love for the truth and our love for the grace of God and the gospel of our Lord Jesus that we give ourselves wholeheartedly to the gospel. Therefore we do not partake or participate in those ministries that are not likewise separated onto the gospel. Many people look upon ecclesiastical or church separation as all negative. They look, oh, they're narrow-minded. They're just critics. No, it's because we love the truth and we desire to stand for God and be given over to the truths of the gospel that we take such a stand. Now I want you to take these words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 1-1 right out of the present day setting. And let's think of what Paul was saying to the early Christians when he wrote this letter to the Roman Christians in the city of Rome. This is an actual letter to actual people in a Roman city in Rome, the head of the Roman Empire. What was he meaning to these people when he addressed them in this very fashion? And he called himself a Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separate onto the gospel. What was he separated onto and from? Well, he was separated from the pagan world. It's unthinkable that the early church was not commanded to separate from all forms of paganism. Let's face it, when Paul wrote this letter, there was no world council of churches. There was no apostasy as we find ourselves facing today. But there was a great degree of paganism, and Paul had led many of these people out of their blind, dark, superstitious ways, their pagan practices of the Roman-Greco world, and saw them profess faith in the Lord Jesus. And he is exhorting them, obviously, to be like him, separated unto the gospel. Now what text do we have in the New Testament to give this command, to separate from paganism? Well, Ephesians 5, 8-11 certainly would be a good starting point. Ephesians 5, 8-11, "...and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness." Here is another church epistle, by the way. It's a church letter addressed to Christians in a church context, and they were not to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. And you'll notice if you go back to verse 8, for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye the light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Proving, put on discernment, prove what is acceptable unto the Lord. And when you make your decision, that's good, that's wrong, have no fellowship. with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Another text I would take you to is Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 9. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idol to serve the living and true God here is a separation onto the gospel here are a people who were idolaters serving images man-made statues of God various gods and Paul speaks of their testimony how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God another key passage is 2 Corinthians 6, 14 again has to deal with idolatry and all manner of paganism that was true in the Greek world. 2 Corinthians 6 14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers? For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what parteth he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, wherefore come out from among them. And so here we have the command to separate from all forms of paganism, all forms of superstition and spiritual darkness. Church of the Lord Jesus is to come out, be separate, and serve the living God only and so we can see that Paul writing to the Romans was certainly calling them to this stand to be separate from paganism then I think we can gather from the New Testament that they were to be separate from false doctrine I'm not going to take time to go through all the possible false doctrines and how they were exhorted to preach sound doctrine to not give in to old wives' fables and genealogies and doctrines of devils and so on. And I don't think anyone here tonight would be for a moment suggesting that the church of the Lord Jesus, whether it's the local church or a denomination, should be compromising in agreeing with false doctrine. Not at all. We are to be separated unto the gospel. paganism, false doctrine, then thirdly, from apostate churches. Apostate churches. Turn with me to 1 Timothy 4 verse 1. 1 Timothy 4 and verse 1. Here now is church apostasy. The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith. Apostasy means to depart from the faith. Someone who had the faith and left it. That's different from paganism. Pagans never had the faith. They never had the light. They never knew the truth. But these people that Paul is speaking of here now in this chapter are a people who have had the light. They have known the truth, but they depart from the faith. giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meat which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. And if you ever wonder why the doctrine of celibacy is such an evil thing, here it is. And those religions and monastic orders that follow celibacy and fall into the awful quagmire of debauchery, here it is right in God's Word. People that call themselves religious and even Christian, and yet they depart from the truth and fall into the very cesspool of sin. Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meat, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving. And then, verse 4, for every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Now, Paul says to Timothy, if thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ. Now, a few weeks ago we took up that theme, how we might be good ministers of Jesus Christ. And being a good minister of Jesus Christ involves separation from apostasy. To be the true church of the Lord Jesus on earth and to be a bright light for the Lord, it means that we will put the brethren in remembrance of these things, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. Now these are ungodly leaders, these apostates that are spoken of here. They have no discipline of Christ in their lives and their churches are seedbeds of iniquity. If we're to purge out the leaven in our own church, we learned that last week, that we must have discipline in the church. We need to have some form of getting the Jezebels out of the church. getting the Balaams out of the church. And if we are held accountable by God to have sound practice, sound doctrine, sound worship in our church, are we therefore free to join in the unsound doctrine and practice of other churches? When the church goes apostate, that means it departs from the faith. What are godly Bible believers to do? I think we need to take a cue from the Protestant Reformation. The history of Protestantism cannot be preached and defended without our benchmark of the Protestant Reformation. When the Church of Rome declared its total apostasy, men like Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and others knew that there was one thing to do. separate, get out from a system that was not only a little bit wrong or a little impure, but a system which had now set itself in opposition to the gospel. And let's think that through the medieval years, the dark ages we call them, there was the Roman Church. It was a state-controlled, Rome-controlled church. Corruption came in. There were elements of the gospel maintained, elements that were so corrupt that the gospel was hardly discernible. But the point at which the Roman Catholic Church declared itself totally apostate was at the Council of Trent in 1545. when it declared that the doctrine of justification by faith alone was erroneous and any adhered to it were heretics and they were to be put to death which was followed up by the Inquisition so we can certainly say that on paper the Roman Catholic Church became totally apostate at the Council of Trent 1545 If you don't want to accept that it was totally corrupt before that, and as I say, I agree, there were elements of the truth here and there to be found in that massive bureaucratic system. With all its corruption, there were within it those who still knew something of the truth. But at 1545, there was no holding with that system. And they denounced the gospel, denied the gospel, and made themselves enemies of the gospel. For 350 years thereafter, Rome tried to dominate over Protestantism by the threat of death. Its inquisitions, its evangelism by subjugating people to one religion, the history of South America and Mexico, the Aztec people and many other peoples of the world were brought into the Roman system not by evangelism, but by military force. They were given no option, be Catholic or die. And the history books, the encyclopedias will tell you all about the evil work of Rome and its Jesuitry and so on. For 350 years Rome sought to dominate by threat of death. But at the beginning of the 1900s Rome changed its tactics and it began to be the dominant religion by not the threat of death but by the theater of dialogue. And you have tonight a summary of the history of the World Council of Churches and the ecumenical movement. You'll find that it had its really the first ever meeting in seed form in Edinburgh 1910. when this dream of a united world religion under the head of Christianity was brought together under missionary society then again they met in Jerusalem in 1928 and it was not until 1948 after the Second World War in Amsterdam that the World Council of Churches was properly formed and it was there that this work of gathering in churches into a united one system, one world Christianity. Then as you see there were various meetings right down through the years 1967 was a very big time that was just after Vatican II when the Church of Rome sort of put on a dress shop window dressing front to say it was changing. And then in 1983, at the bottom of that first page, you'll notice that really what was a turning of the corner in interfaith ecumenical dialogue here in Vancouver, 1983, the number of guests of other faiths rose to 15. And it was truly an interfaith dialogue. Now, these are all facts that you can find on the website. I didn't type up any more than the last little comment at the bottom here. All of this is their own information. All the churches that are involved in the World Council of Churches, except there's a little bit of a sidestep of the truth here. To become a member of the World Council of Churches, you have to be a member of the National Council of Churches. So if we wanted as a Free Presbyterian Church to become a part of the World Council of Churches, we would first of all have to join the Canadian Council of Churches. Now the World Council of Churches says that the Roman Catholic Church is not a full member. They only send delegates. But, in every nation, the Roman Catholic Church is a full member. And they have their Canadian Council or Conference of Catholic Bishops. Also on that list, not named on this one, purely Canadian, is the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, the Salvation Army, the Reformed Church in Canada, the CRC of North America, and the British Methodist Episcopal Church. I found those on the list they gave for the Canadian Council of Churches. Now when you get down to the purposes and functions of the WCC, you begin to realize what they're aiming for, what this is all about. And I'll read the second paragraph under point three, purposes and functions of the WCC. The primary purpose of the fellowship of churches in the WCC is to call one another to visible unity in one faith, and in one Eucharistic fellowship. Now there is the operative term. One visible faith. One Eucharistic fellowship. Now what is the Eucharist? The Eucharist to us would be the communion. But to the Roman Catholic Church, of course, it's the Mass. And people say, well this is just a fellowship of churches. No, it's not. It is to be a church of visible unity one faith and one Eucharist or sacrament and I assure you that the Roman Catholic system is not going to give up the man. They have insisted on it consistently down through the years and as progress is made in unity Protestant churches like Anglican and Lutherans that have entered into dialogue for unity, they have put out statements that they will accept not only the Pope as the head of the One World Church, but they will accept this One Eucharist or the Mass. Now, without breaking through all the evils of the World Council of Churches, I think you will agree that it's premised on the wrong idea. totally premised on the wrong idea. What are we going to do? We have three responses to this. Do we join them? Do we silently tolerate them? Or do we expose them and do all we can to make people aware of the evil and their dark reversal of the Reformation? That's really what the World Council of Churches is. It's a reversal of the Protestant Reformation. Well, as we say in the final statement on that page 2, that the Free Presbyterian Church, since its inception in 1951, which was just three years after the World Council of Churches was formed in Amsterdam in 1948, this denomination has been militantly against and opposed to the World Council of Churches. It's not that we just observe and say, well, it's not a good idea. It is that we sense that it is our call from God to be faithful to His Word, to be separated unto the Gospel, to guard the Gospel, and to warn people that if you follow the ecumenical way, if you join that unity of a one world faith, it will cost you the Gospel. And we need to herald the warning nook against those that are falling into that evil way. Let me give you just a little insight to what this World Council of Churches is presently doing. I said earlier, without getting any further, this is one point I want to make, to make it relevant, to make it up to date. Just this month, February 20th, the World Council of Churches, an international committee, put out a statement that they were going to pursue the World Council of Churches, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have agreed to continue the process to dialogue which was started in Geneva on the 13th and 14th of February. They also identified four areas of concern that will be addressed in a series of encounters, the first of which will take place in Washington, D.C. next October. The agreed themes are the challenges of globalization, participation of the people in development, such as in poverty reduction programs, and in debt resolution. the respective roles of the state and public and private sectors in development and poverty reduction efforts and institutional governance and accountability with regard to equity, justice and the distribution of wealth. So here is a church body made up of 320 churches from around the world seeking to throw their weight now against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank pleading for justice. What does that mean? That unless countries toe the line, they'll be under pressure from the IMF. They must conform to the social justice of the World Council of Churches or they'll be under pressure to be ruled out in this world banking system. And I think we're getting dangerously close. I'm no prophet and I'm not making any predictions here tonight, but I read the warning of the Bible that the mark of the beast will be that no man will be able to either buy nor sell unless he receives the mark of the beast. Revelation 13, 7. And here is a one world church system, interfaith dialogue, They're not just sticking to church unity. They've got their finger in the pie in Washington, in the World Bank, in the international monetary system, seeking to apply their interpretation of justice upon the world political scene. I think that is most significant and I think that you can only agree that such an organization has overstepped its mandate and has no place in a world that needs the gospel and not just some form of social justice. So these three points come our way tonight. Do we join them? Do we just quietly accommodate and tolerate? Or do we oppose them? I think every church follows the word of God, seeks to be a biblical, gospel preaching, Christ honouring church. must oppose the world consulature, must oppose the ecumenical pressures. We must be apart from this bombardment of get on the unity movement. We need to remain separate unto the gospel. How can we do that? I have four Short statements. Number one, we're to keep them out. We will not enter into dialogue with the ecumenists on any level. Under pressure it's somewhat easy for some churches to get into the position where they feel they must dialogue. That was the escape of evangelicals and Catholics together when men like, I better not mention names without being sure, got together and discussed on a very high level how they may produce a doctrinal statement that would bring agreement between Romanism and Protestant. We will not dialogue, we will pray against this evil work of a one world church that's not only between Protestant and Catholic, but is to try and envelop even the pagan religions of this world and to incorporate them into some kind of a one umbrella. In Revelation 18.4 we are commanded to come out from among them and be ye separate. And in command to the scripture and to the word of God in light of end time prophecy we take our stand here. We can do no other. The Free Presbyterian Church is a separated church. We have no interest in unity with Rome, no interest in ecumenical dialogue, no interest in pursuing relationships with those that are denying the Gospel, pagan by name or Christian by name. If they are not separated unto the Gospel, we will come out and be separate. We're also to be separate in our evangelism. You'll notice, and I'll allow you some time to read through this handout you have tonight, that this whole unity idea got off the ground on the premise of evangelism. This is the way to win the world. This is the way to reach more nations, more peoples. Why be divided? Why work against each other? Let's work in unison and witness and evangelize the world. 1910 in Edinburgh began as a missionary conference which led eventually to the World Council of Churches. What they call evangelism of course is just get them under the umbrella of a one world religion. True evangelism leads people to faith in Christ. The Evangelicals and Catholics Together document was to work on an agreement where there would be no proselytising between Protestants and Catholics. That means when I go around Cloverdale and I meet a Roman Catholic, I'll not be telling him, come and hear the gospel in our church. I'll be encouraging him to stay on hearing the message in his own church. That's what Evangelicals and Catholics was aiming at. and it's false, and it will rob the Christian church of true vengeance. Thirdly, we are to be faithful in exposing the sins of ecumenism and all leaders who will compromise with them. We don't do that, we're not separative. Those who, many big names with big influence, whether you call it innocence, pretense, naivety, or deception, wherever you place that, and I'll allow you to form your own opinion. Any leading ministry today, of any skill, that does not expose the one world religion issues, and does not seek to expose the errors of dialogue with Rome, becomes an enemy of the gospel, doing more harm than good. I don't say these men are not saved. I don't say these men don't have the Bible. I don't say that they don't have any ministry. Tragedy is that they give the perception unity with Rome is good. Relations with Rome under the umbrella of evangelism is right. and they encourage people to get on board the Ecumenical Movement. The good they preach is undone by their failure to expose the errors of the World Council of Churches and Ecumenical Movement. And when they bring onto their platform Ecumenists, Liberals, Modernists, Romanists, Jews, and call them all brethren. They promote, they not only quietly, silently, innocently tolerate, they promote the ecumenical direction and they lead this nation and many Christians into great confusion. And I want to serve notice tonight Last week I talked about membership and I trust there will be people who will join this church as a result of the exhortations of last week. I want you to serve notice tonight that if Billy Graham was to come to Cloverdale to set up a tent or to take the rodeo grounds for a campaign, this church will not support it. This church will not pray for it. This church will not encourage people to go to it. In fact, don't be surprised if we lead a protest against it. Because this is a separatist church. Not just in theory, but in practice. Because it is our biblical duty to expose the religious confusion of this day. And if we're not willing to do that, you might say, oh, I'm against ecumenism. I'm against Rome. I'm against all this. But then you have these religious leaders who are at the forefront of promoting Rome and they will have campaigns, priests will be there as counsellors, the converts will be sent back to their parishes and mass houses to be shepherded by Roman Catholic priests. We cannot support that. This church cannot support that. We have to be separate. To be faithful, we must expose. That's what a separatist is. That's what Paul did. He named false men. He named those who were leading people astray. And that becomes the duty of the Christian church in this century as well. Then number four. To be separated unto the gospel, we need a faithful ministry that expounds the gospel. And you'll notice in Romans 1 how Paul goes on in those opening verses to expound the gospel. Romans 1, separated unto the gospel which he had promised afore by his prophets and the holy scriptures, so it's a biblical gospel. Verse 3, concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, declared to be the Son of God. He's a divine person. And then he was raised from the dead in the resurrection. You know, the ecumenists and apostates, they don't believe in the resurrection of Christ. Many of them don't believe that He's the Son of God. Many of them don't believe that this Bible is the Word of God from cover to cover. And if we are to enter into fellowship and to join hands in hand with their ministry, how can we have a faithful ministry? Our task is to preach these great truths. the deity of the Lord Jesus, to preach the blood, to preach the way of salvation by faith alone. And by God's grace, as we seek to do this, we will be separated unto the Gospel. We'll be so busy, so consumed with our energy and our resources to preach the Gospel that we won't even have a minute to look over our shoulder, to get united in some other social justice cause. I don't want to be going having meetings with the IMF and the World Bank. I've trouble enough getting to my own bank never getting to the World Bank. I'm too busy preaching the gospel to get involved in social issue. No doubt if there are those needs we want to encourage them. But we're not going to be spending gospel dollars in doing it. And so We need to obey Romans 1. And as a church, with Christ as our head, He is the head of the church, we must remain pure in doctrine, pure in practice, and pure in our association. And as I started out tonight, I want to emphasize again in closing, we are separatists, but not isolation. There are men in this city I can call my brother. I can pray for them. I could preach for them but they never ask me. Some of them. We could have them in this pulpit from time to time and we do. We believe that there are gospel preaching churches around. And they're faithful. They believe the book. For some reason or other they don't believe everything that free Presbyterians believe. They don't exactly see every issue the same way, but we can call them faithful servants of the Lord Jesus. There is room for fellowship and encouragement one with another. We're not out to make enemies of good, faithful men and women, but we are out to be separated unto the lost and to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. And so if you contemplate joining this church, you are joining a church that is separate. And as I say, if Billy Graham comes to town and I preach against it, I don't want you saying I didn't think you'd do a thing like that. I'm telling you now, you're forewarned. This church is, to the death, opposed to ecumenism, World Council of Churches unity in every shape and form. And no matter who it is, Should it be my own brother in the flesh that should rise up as an ecumenist, I will expose him. By God's grace, we need to be faithful unto the end. Come out from among them. We have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. What communion has darkness with light or Christ with Belial? None at all. and we believe as we come out and be separate unto the gospel the Lord will be as he promises a father unto you and I will bless you. These are the promises we can stand upon tonight.