Lord God, we just come before you as we open up your Word. We pray that you would teach us and guide us in your truth this morning. Lord, help us to see just the beauty of the Bride of Christ, Lord, with all of her warts and all her unglorified state. Lord, she is worth laboring for. Purity and unity and so Lord. I pray that you would just guide us in the truth this morning Jesus name Well today we're studying the Purity and the unity of the church and Last time we talked about the nature and purpose of the Church. I think there's at least two more chapters on the Church. When we talk about the purity and unity of the Church, especially as it pertains to the purity of the Church, The London Baptist Confession, 1689, chapter 26, paragraph 3, says, "...the purest churches under heaven are subject to mixture and air, and some have so degenerated as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, Christ always hath had and ever shall have a kingdom in this world and the end thereof, of such as believe in him, and make profession of his name." So, churches have a mixture of air and truth, of purity and impurity. Maybe we can just think of some of the different New Testament churches. and what the kind of overall tenor is. So let me just throw out some churches. The first church of Corinth. Sin problems. What kinds of sin problems? Sexual sin. Incest. Yeah. Yeah. Sexual sin, people getting drunk at the Lord's Supper, people seeming to gobble up all the food before others are there. Appears to be not only incest, but also in chapter 6, he gives some sharp language against having relations with prostitutes. Sexual immorality and church at Trent. What else? How does the letter start out? I am of Paul. I am of so they had become factious, almost juvenile. Sexual immorality, division, evidently no church, or how can we put it, not practicing church discipline faithfully. They're shooting each other. Lawsuits. Evidently some kind of belief was working its way through the church. A belief that there was no future resurrection for believers. Perhaps that the resurrection had already taken place and there was no resurrection. You have doctrinal error. In terms of the letter that he references, that they write to him, it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman. It's a misunderstanding. Yeah. Actually, the letter of 1 Corinthians seems like, he says, not concerning. In fact, you can outline the letter. That was probably a question that they had asked, which at least they're asking it. You know what I mean? With other areas, it seems like he has to just hunt them down and rebuke them. But yeah, there was definitely a lack of understanding. I mean, is it... Corinth is one of those churches that seems like so bad. I mean, you almost like... Yeah, I mean, is this even a church? How about the First Church of Thessalonica? misunderstanding about the resurrection. Okay, yeah, there's some, in second test, there was some letters circulating. Yeah, what else? Was it an older generation church, younger generation church? I mean, in the sense of, had it been around a while, young, Yeah, it's almost a brand spanking new church, young church. They seem to be living zealously, anticipating the Lord's coming. Okay, how about church in Galatia? Yes, so you get Judaizing here see invading the church In fact, I mean most of the New Testament letters are And it makes sense because You know There's a reason why he wrote these letters. He's addressing something. Something came up to provoke him to address. Not always. I mean, you see Church and Philippi, you know, it seems like he wrote that almost as a thank you letter for the gift that they had given him. And he still addresses what appear to be problems there. So all that to say is that there's a kind of continuum as far as, you know, If we could put error, sin, and purity, truth, and of course none arrive at that line of purity or truth until Jesus comes back for his bride. Until, you know, what Ephesians 5 says, you know, that husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. And then it says to present her to himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. So the aim is that the bride will be pure and without air and in her glorified, beautified state, but she's not there yet. And so, Grudem makes a list of different characteristics that we would put to measure that continuum of pure or less pure on the spectrum there. I thought it would be fun, whether you think it's fun, is yet to be told, but I thought it would be an interesting exercise to go through Revelation 2 and 3, because these are specific words that Jesus speaks to seven different churches in the letter to the seven different churches. You see very clearly there are certain things that he commends and certain things that he condemns, certain things that are pleasing to him, certain things that are displeasing. These are some marks of a bride that pleases Christ. These are not in any way all-inclusive, but these are just a sampling. Basically what I did was I just kind of systematized some common themes of Christ's words to the churches. Let's look at Revelation 2. I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. Yet this you have, you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. In this first section, from verse 1 down to verse 7, he's addressing the church in Ephesus. What does he commend the church in Ephesus here, specifically in verse 2? They're hard work. They're ignorance. They're dealing with sin or sinners. They cannot bear those who are evil. Exposing false teachers. Yeah, they seem to expose these false teachers or false apostles. those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be false. So there's some kind of testing or examining, discerning. And then down in verse 6... Yeah, hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans. And who are the Nicolaitans? Drop down to verses 14 to 16. It's 14. But I have a few things against you. You have some there, including the teachings of Balaam. He taught Balaam to put some in blocks before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food, sacrifice, violence, and practice sexual immorality. You're 16. Therefore, repent. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought that came as well. So, also you have, quote, you have some who go to the teachings of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent, if not, I will come to these two, and war against them will be soothed in my mind. Okay. So, um, what, what kind of inkling do we have about these Nicolaitans here who the church in Ephesus hated and now We see the Church of Pergamum is tolerating or accepting or... There's some kind of idolatry now. He calls it the... You have some who hold the teaching of Balaam. What does the teaching of Balaam describe us here? Okay, who was Baelin? I can't remember. Yeah, was it Baelin or Baelic? I can't remember. I was thinking Baelic was the prophet that he was trying to convince to put a curse on his year unless they were entering on this land. What? The Lord wouldn't allow it, basically. He kept blessing the people. He kept cursing them. He's the guy with the donkey. The Lord put an angel in front of all of us. It's one of those things when you read through the book of Numbers, it's implied. It's not explicitly stated, but what you see is the narrative goes on. with the Midianites, and you see this especially with, remember what Phineas does? Phineas is the guy who, through the spear, through the couple that had gone to have relations before all of Israel, Balaam's air was to try and basically seduce the Israelites into their false religion through intermarrying. And so evidently there was somebody who was in some way following in this same kind of air. And you see, "...put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, to commit acts of immorality." And then notice the first word of verse 15, "...so you also have some who hold in the same way to the teaching of the Nicolaitans." So there's that so, which is a conclusion. So you have the church at Ephesus commended for what in 2.6? Hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans. And then you have in verse 14, the church at Pergamum, what is their relationship to the Nicolaitans? holding to the teachings of Nicolaitans. So we can see here, under this first point, doctrinally sound discernment. I guess this would include, because there was some degree of sexual immorality, this includes not only beliefs but practices as well. And then in verse 16, to the church of Pergamum, what does Jesus tell them to do? It says repent, or else what? Yeah, with the sword of his mouth. And if you remember from several weeks ago, our study of the exalted Christ, he had a sword coming out of his mouth. And so we see here, this is a kind of sword of judgment. Good. Any questions on that? Okay. Let's look at 2.20 to 2.22. Went to the Church of Thyatira. Chris, why don't you read those verses? But I have this question. As you tolerate a woman who calls herself a prophetess, she teaches and leads my boss servants astray. So that they would have acts of immorality, and eat things sacrificed by idols. I gave her time to repent. She does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of stiches, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. So what did Jesus have against the Church of Thyatira here? They were, once again, tolerating. Now, when is tolerating a good thing, when is it a bad thing? Or is it ever a good thing? It's a good thing in some aspects. It's not a good thing in other aspects. Within a church that is committed to Christ, such sin should not be tolerated. On the other hand, within a church committed to Jesus Christ, credo baptism and tolerating credo baptism is better for me. You tolerate? Yeah, so I think, you know, toleration when it comes to tolerating people, you know, I mean, we may have annoying habits or things like that, we should tolerate one another. But when it comes to matters of, you know, major doctrinal error or sin, I mean, we still can tolerate people but not accept what they're doing. In fact, this is the second time he's chided one of the churches for tolerating. It is an interesting thing when you look at church history and you see a lot of times it's good men, how can I put this? gospel-believing men who tolerate major error that leads to the downfall of great institutions, churches, or even seminaries. If you look, if you trace the downfall of Princeton Theological Seminary, you'll see that there was men there who were, there was actually the The evangelicals and the more conservatives were actually in the majority, but they were so tolerant of the theological liberals that they winded up making enemies with the guys like Machen, and before him was Warfield, but mostly Machen, who were standing up for the truth. It was just interesting. biggest enemies were not the liberals, it was his evangelicals at Princeton who were tolerating the error that was taking place. Now, I guess just thinking, although this isn't necessarily in the passage, But for this kind of stuff to exist, whether it's the teaching of the Nicolaitans, the sexual immorality of Jezebel, these kinds of things, for these things to... What means does Christ leave the Church to deal with these kinds of things? Okay, Elders, but what if the Elder is Prophetess Jezebel? Then you're in big trouble, I guess. Please choose. It's Word, Matthew 18, please. Yeah, I think Matthew 18, he leaves us a process by which to deal with unrepentant sin, unrepentant theological, doctrinal error. So he leaves us that means to deal with a set pattern. Okay, any questions on that? This was an interesting find. The second point, we see quite a few verses on this. Endurance under adversity slash persecution. We see this with the church in Ephesus in 2.3. Chris, can you read 2, 3, and then Bev, if you can read 2, 9, and 10? And you have perseverance, and have endured my namesake, and have not frowned either. I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich, and the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. the church at Ephesus and what does he commend them for there? What does it say? Endurance. Perseverance. I love this word. The word translated Perseverance throughout these two chapters, at least in the New American Standard, is the word Hupomone. Mone is the word to abide. Hupo means under, to remain under. It's like to bear up underneath something. Keep in mind, what is the historical context in which John is writing, recording the Book of Revelation and the letter to these churches. He's in exile in Patmos. The church is under persecution. It would appear that it's the Domitian persecution in the late first century. It's a period in which the emperor of Rome was intensely persecuting Christians, and so he's writing this, John himself, under persecution, and he's writing to churches that are under persecution. Jesus is commending the church in Ephesus for persevering, for enduring for Jesus' sake, and not growing weary in this. And what do we see in Revelation 2, 9, and 10? This is now he's talking to the church in Pergamum. I'm sorry, Smyrna. Yeah, they're under extreme conditions again. Tribulation, poverty, slander. So tribulation poverty Yeah Yep And then let's read 2.13. This is now to the church in Pergamon. Pergamon. Bruce, can you read that one? I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. So what does he commend them for here? So evidently there was a guy from the church Antipas who was killed under this kind of persecution and yet the church still remained faithful unto the Lord. And then 2.19, this is to the Church of Thyatira. Chris, can you read that one? I know your deeds and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of faith are greater than any curse. Okay, so here again, we see that word perseverance, the same word that we saw earlier. It's the idea of remaining up underneath. And then in 3.8-10, this is now to the Church of Philadelphia. Beth, can you read that one? I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one has ever shut. I know that you have full power, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold, I will make Okay, so in verse 10, he commends them for what? for persevering, you've kept the word of my perseverance, or that patient endurance, hupomone again, and so God was going to somehow keep them in the midst of a future testing that was coming. And so, we see with each of these verses, Jesus commending these different churches for enduring in the midst of adversity and specifically persecution. Now this is one of those characteristics, so you can see that this is something that pleases Christ, He commends it. This is one of those characteristics that as I went through this, you know, I guess You become fearful because the church in America has lived in such a bubble for so long, and as we see the culture increasingly hostile to any vestige of Christianity, it makes me concerned for the bride. And so, you know, I think one of these points, you know, the more we love Christ, I mean, that's kind of, how do you prepare for persecution, you know? I think you just have to grow and deepen your love for Christ and just resolve that no matter what, even at the cost of you know, being dirt poor as one church was here, or, you know, cost of, you know, separation from family, you know, anything around you that is a gift from God to keep a light grip on it and to keep an ironclad grip upon Christ and your love for Him. I mean, you know, the California legislature trying to go against the Boy Scouts. Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, it'll start with losing tax exemptions and it'll work its way from there. It'll move to lawsuits and it'll move from there to criminalizing. Hate speech. Yeah. I mean, of course I'm not a prophet, but it's coming, seeming at breakneck speed. It's one of those things like, I mean, you know, you wish it was directly, you know, this is going to be about, you know, me believing in justification by faith alone, you know, something like that. But, you know, so it winds up on these social issues, but you have to understand, I mean, even Paul's fighting over the issue of foreskins in Galatians, you know, it's like, And somebody could say, what's the big deal? Oh, it's just a foreskin. But because it was related to the gospel, because adding circumcision to justification, is an aberration of the gospel, it becomes an issue worth fighting. Because issues concerning homosexuality do touch on major doctrines, what do I believe about the Bible? How can I believe in the Bible and honestly say that this is acceptable? If I don't say this is sin, then then what hope is there for me to give to somebody who has engaged in such sexual immorality? So there's no gospel for them in relationship to this particular issue. I do think that it's coming. I can't say how fast it's going to come. I pray for repentance. I don't pray I don't pray God bless America. Why would he? We deserve to be wiped off the face of the earth. But I pray for our repentance and maybe God would be pleased as a bunch of people repent that he would extend mercy. I look at it as a judgment against the house of the Lord. And the reason all these rules are out there is because we are in a crisis. We don't know what to do. I mean, I'm sure you've read stuff, you know, a couple say homosexuality isn't about love and emotion and romance, and that's what most of the marriages in the Church are about. Sure, yeah, sure, certainly the Bride of Christ has not been as faithful as she should be. And in one sense, you know, this coming testing will probably flush out who is the bride of Christ. In a sense, you see Jesus talking to the seven churches here, and you can see Him saying similar things to the church today. I take removing His threats to remove the lampstands just to remove them as a light period, and they just will be no more. I mean, it is a sobering thing. Historically, when you look at this area of Asia Minor and these seven churches, I mean, this is... Granted, I mean, these were strongholds for several centuries after, but right now, these areas are blanketed by Islam. We don't look to the church in Ephesus anymore, or the church of Thyatira. There's just darkness. I remember going to a missions conference, and I don't know how accurate these numbers are. This was probably 15 years ago. There were guys from Turkey wearing shirts that said, one Christian per 60 million Muslims. That was kind of their appeal. sobering as they're walking around with these shirts, you know, as a call for, a plea for Christians to come to Turkey. And so, number three here, passionate love for Jesus. You see this in 2.4. And Bruce, can you read 2, 4, and 5? This is the church in Ephesus. condemnation that he has of the church at Ephesus, and what does it consist of? He lost their first love. And what does he tell them to do in verse 5? The first command in verse 5 is to remember from where you have fallen. It seems to suggest, you know, remember how it was before and where you're at right now. The second command is to repent, to turn, a change of mind that leads to a change of direction. The third thing he says is to do the deeds you did at first, to go back to what you were doing at first. And then what's his threat? He'll take out your lampstand unless you repent. And so he says you have left your first love. Now, it could be the love that you had at first, or could be your first love in the sense your preeminent love, the one who should be your preeminent love. I think probably either way we would take that. It's somehow their love for Christ had dwindled. Part of the reason why I say that, it does seem that they were, like in verse 2 he says, I know your deeds, your perseverance. In other words, the question is, is this love for other people, or is this love for Christ? It does seem that he commends them for their deeds, which would seem to be indicative of their deeds towards one another, or could be their deeds in faithfulness in the midst of persecution, but I do take it that he's referring to their love for Christ had dwindled, and even though they had This was the church that was very discerning, and they tested those false apostles, but yet their love for Christ was weak, and they needed to repent of that. In modern terms would you describe this as cold orthodoxy? I think so, yeah. I think that would be an accurate description. We do everything right, but they don't really love us. Yeah, I think so. And then he gives another condemnation for the church in Laodicea. We see this in 3.15.16. Chris, can you read that one? I know your deeds, but you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were colder than you are hot. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Okay. There is, with many of these churches, there is, if you study the kind of historical situation with each of these churches, It does shed a little bit more light. Evidently there was some kind of hot springs in Laodicea. As these hot springs, the hot water would come out. Eventually it would become cold downstream, you know. And so the hot springs would be great for utilizing if you, I don't know, if you want to take a warm bath or something like that. And then eventually when the water gets downstream, it can be good drinking water, unless somebody else is taking a bath, I guess. Drinking your own bath water. But when it's right in between, it's lukewarm. What good is that for? And so Jesus says, you're neither hot nor cold, but you're lukewarm. You're right in between. Jesus says, I wish you were you were hot, you were cold or hot. So evidently they were just kind of like right in between. Right in between in regards to, they weren't openly hating Christ, they weren't openly abandoning Christ, but they weren't passionately for Christ either. They were just kind of right in between. And what does Jesus say he's going to do in verse 16? He's going to spew them, as King James says, spew them out of his mouth, or vomit them out of his mouth. Yeah, yeah, and I think that's um Obviously this is a good kind of challenge to our own hearts that you know I think we could all say that I should be more Passionate about the things of Lord. I should love Christ more fully But I think we also have to understand that the Christian life is We don't always live on the Mount of Transfiguration kind of experience, that there's ebbs and flows in the Christian life. And there's remaining sin that slows us down. And so you're right, this is one of those verses that a lot of times Christians will come fearful that Christ is going to spit them out because they're not as passionate as they were two months ago. And so, you know, we have to, I think, tenderly deal with souls like that too. On the one hand, you know, there's obviously conviction and we don't want to squelch that. But at the same time, helping them, especially if they're a new Christian, helping them to understand the Christian life is, you know, there are ups and downs. And I love David Powelson's illustration of the Christian life is like a yo-yo, a guy walking up steps with a yo-yo in his hand. And sanctification and Christian growth is like the ball on the yo-yo. There's ups and downs, you know, but as a Christian you're going up the steps, so there is progress. And part of the goal of sanctification is shortening the string on the yo-yo, so it's not, the valleys aren't so deep, you know, and so it's more of a steady walk up the steps. And so, yeah, and I think, you know, I think We just need to be careful in helping people with that. On the one hand, to push them to help them to have greater love for Christ. Those words to the church at Ephesus, although each of these admonitions are to corporate churches, there's of course application to individually. He says those three things, to remember, repent, and do the things you did at first. Good admonitions, well, you know, two months ago when you were real passionate, you know, you were coming to like every service, you know. Maybe let's start there. Let's remember what, you know, let's do what you were doing at first. Well, back then you were reading your Bible every day. You were going out, you know, you were fellowshipping with other believers. Let's go back to that, you know. So, you know, a lot of the counsel Christ gives to the church at Ephesus can be individually applied as well. Well, I think Yeah, and I think that's where we would need to help somebody to see the context he's talking about short the church the choice the choice corporately and He's talking about the church in Laodicea, and so similar to his warning that he speaks to the church in Ephesus, you know, I'll take your lampstand away from you if you don't repent, I think similarly he would There would cease to be a church as part of the judgment. And obviously the church is made up of individuals and so that could be the idea that they're never truly saved. It goes back I think to that tension when we're studying the doctrine of perseverance. On the one hand you will persevere, on the other hand you must persevere. And that's what he says in verse 21 when he's still talking to Laodicea. He says, he who overcomes I will grant him to sit down on my throne as I overcame and sat down on his throne. So this idea of overcoming or persevering, you have to persevere and if you don't then you'll be judged. And so, yeah, so it is something that we have to both help somebody to understand that both the tension of, yes, you must persevere, you know, don't think you could turn away from, you know, grow cold, drift away from the Lord, turn away from Him, and still have assurance that you're on your way to Heaven. On the other hand, if you're truly one of God's, Jesus will discipline you. He'll bring you back into the fold and He'll cause you to persevere. If He has to drag you by your ear, He will. It's helping somebody to understand the balance of scripture and these different doctrines. with that. It is. It is. Yeah. It's similar to Hebrew six in a way where it's really a challenge. Not necessarily saying people are. Yeah. Yep. potential issues, especially in western cultures, specifically America, is emotionalism that controls too much as opposed to focusing on the truth, letting the truth thrive the most. Yeah, that's a good point. I think some of that can be an influence, and I think it's just where we have to take it. Even individually, temperamentally, some people are just very emotional people, and then when you have so much of the charismatic movement that focuses on experience, you know that that you know if I don't have this experience or I'm not on remaining on this kind of perpetual cloud nine of the Christian life then you know I feel like I'm lukewarm now and I'm going to hell um and then you know so it's yeah it's just one of those things yeah I think that's that's a good observation that um and yet at the same time you know Experience is not bad, but it just has to be rooted and anchored in the truth and in the objective realities of the promises of Christ and what He's done. Go ahead, Chris. Doctrine anchors your soul so well. In a lot of the churches like that, there's such a lack of doctrinal teaching. Yep, absolutely right. And that even, you know, just seeing the balance of scripture even, you know, Even with a passage like this, you know, where you do have this sharp warning, but also we have the promises of our security in the Lord and just seeing, I mean, there are tensions that need to be balanced, you know, with other verses, not to exclude these sharp warnings and we don't want to muzzle them, but good. Okay, the last one there is a purity of walk. We see this a couple of places, but 3-4 is certainly one place. Bev, can you read this? How does he describe several of these in Sardis? Soiled garments. Yeah. Yeah, even, I mean, thinking, you know, they would wear those long tunics and just get them dirty walking around. Yesterday I was helping some young people play baseball and it was so muddy out, you know, it's like you wind up with mud all over your shoes, mud on your pants. And so I think that the soiling is referring to the kind of getting dirty from the world as you walk in this world, having the sin of this world attached to your garments. And then turn back to Ephesians, not Ephesians, but the Church in Ephesus in 2. Was it this one? Maybe it wasn't. Oh yeah, it was 219 by Tyra. We talked about this verse under the heading of endurance and persecution, but you can also see their pure walk. It says in 2.19, I know your deeds. your love and faith and service and perseverance. So their love, their faith, their service. And so this is another area that Jesus commends as a kind of pure walk before him. And so, once again, this is not an exhaustive list that I've come up with here. But at least it gives us some clear statements, some clear testimony from the lips of Christ himself. Delights in when he looks at his church. These are things that he does not like that he threatens to take away lampstands to spew churches out of his mouth when they're like when they're lukewarm or these these other areas and so I Think it gives us It gives us some indication of what Christ looks for in his church. I think it was a Dick Mayhew who wrote a book, What Would Jesus Say About Your Church? I haven't read it, but he just goes through Revelation 2 and 3 and it's just good to kind of think through what Jesus looks for in his bride, the church. So that's the purity of the church. Any questions or comments on that? Coffee is ready by the way if you guys need or want any. The next section is on the unity of the church. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Make these edits. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes my notes are not consistent with your guys. Yeah, this is that under under. It says reasons not to make unholy alliances with believers, you could just X that out. I was fearful that that made it into your notes. Well, that'll be. If you wanted to move that, that would be under, by the time we get to 2 Corinthians 6, 14-18 on page 2 there. So, that's what I'm calling the foundation of unity in Ephesians 4. Let's read verse 1 to 3. Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Okay. So, notice how he starts out in verse 1. He says, therefore I. There are several therefores in the book of Ephesians. The challenge with the therefore is always understanding how far does it reach back and grab. I think this therefore reaches back and grabs all the way to chapter 1, probably verse 3 and following, so basically the first three chapters in light of this, and you could really easily break down the book of Ephesians 1, 2, and 3 are more the indicatives of what God has done in Christ for us, and then 4 through 6 is our responsibility, what we're to do in light of that. And we see that very clearly here. What does he implore us to do? Yeah, to walk worthy. That word worthy, it carries the idea of consistently or it's almost like a balance, you know, and to walk worthy, to walk consistently with what? The calling. The calling, which is a summary statement of God's effectual calling is calling us into salvation. And how are we to do this in verse 2 and 3? What's this worthy walk look like? Humility is one. Gentleness. What else? Patience. Tolerance. Diligence. There we see that word tolerance. So, okay, there's proof texts. Sometimes tolerance is a good thing. Well, I think tolerance for one another, now it's interesting, there's two words, patience and tolerance, you often see side by side in the New Testament, they're kind of like cousins, but patience is the idea of long suffering, like enduring when somebody sins against you. Tolerance is more the idea of enduring, not necessarily with sin, but more like nuisances, annoyances, things like that, that maybe just kind of rub us in the wrong way. It's so good. It's so good to apply that and think about that. Yeah, it is. It's helpful. It's interesting. In the body of Christ, there's a lot of clickiness. We have to push past that. Because I think if that issue is not intolerated, we have our pet peeves and our certain misplaced personality issues or appearances and all that stuff. Yep, yeah and I think I mean a lot of times we we use the word patience more probably for the idea of this word tolerance in English like you know we think of patience as you know you know the elderly lady in front of us in the grocery you know who is counting pennies or you know and we have some place to go just need to be patient you know it's that's the idea this word tolerance is kind of tolerating the annoyance or nuisance or the infirmity or weakness of another, versus patience, at least translated here, is more the idea that if the old lady turned around and slapped you with her purse or something like that, then you need to not retaliate and endure that evil treatment. So showing tolerance to one another in love, and then how does that relate to verse 3? What are we called to do in verse 3? Preserve the unity of the church, the bond of peace, the like-mindedness, but the non-war against one another. Now, the fact that it says preserve, what does that assume? There is one. It's there. That there is an inherent unity of the Spirit within the body of Christ. But notice verse 3 says, being diligent to preserve it. You have to be intentional about it. It doesn't happen on accident. So this is what we're called to do, to preserve this unity, to diligently preserve this unity. So how does verse 2 relate to verse 3? And it's something that we should strive hard at. Yeah, so if we're living humbly, not thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to, so if we're walking humbly, then it's doubtful that we're going to be pushing our own agenda, pushing our demands, Gentleness, that's that idea of meekness, this kind of power under control where we could easily squash somebody else, but we're going to kind of put nerf around our personalities so we're not butting heads. patience, enduring evil treatment and intolerance, and all this is within the sphere of love. And so, think if we're aiming to walk in these ways. So, this suggests the opposites of these, and you could think about this actually with a point we're going to get to later on when we talk about the hindrance of unity under number four there. If you think about the opposites of these, the opposites of these virtues are going to not preserve the unity of the spirit. So pride, harshness, impatience, or retaliation. intolerance for one another, and unloving attitudes seeking our own agenda, our own good, rather than the good of others, are going to cause disunity. Any questions so far on that? Okay, and then now look in verse four and five, four to six, I'll just read that. It says, one body and one spirit, just as 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. How many times has he mentioned the word one here? Verse four to six. Yes, seven times. That's how many I counted. I think on three counts. So, seven times. Now, how many times does one refer to a who? And who be the who? Okay, God is mentioned as one of the who's. Yeah, one Spirit, one Lord. So, who is that? Yeah, we have the Triune God. Now, how does that relate to what Jesus prayed in John 17? As we are one. So remember, Jesus prayed for that kind of Trinitarian unity in the Gospel of John, John 17, and we see, in a sense, that prayer answered this foundational aspect of unity that exists in the body of Christ, because there is one Spirit, one Lord, and one God. But then he mentions some other things as well. So how does being part of one body unite? Well, it's similar to Paul's argument. The hand can't save the eye. I don't want to be part of this. I mean, one body, the members of the body are all together as the body. They're not individual entities of themselves. They can't exist without the rest of the body, or at least not well. Yeah, so the idea, if you think of us as one body, there's a kind of unity, although we each have different roles and functions and all that. And there's even a kind of picking up the slack when one member is down. I mentioned not feeling well this past week and my back and my sides were hurting so much. And just even to sit down or get up was so painful. So I would have to use my arms to really just kind of nurse my back and my sides. So my back wasn't feeling it, so my arms were picking up the slack. If you've got one finger down, the rest of your fingers will help out. And yet, at the same time, waiting for the one finger to come along. unless the damage is far gone. And then what else? He says there's one hope. How does that unite? How does that bring kind of foundational unity in the church? This is what we're hoping for. longing for. I mean, hope is a kind of future-oriented faith or confidence or trust. You know, if we're looking towards, you know, the not yet promises that are found in the Lord being fulfilled, I mean, that just kind of unites our hearts together. So it's just inherent. If we have that one hope, it's just going to be a natural kind of unity. And then he mentions one faith. I guess similar to One Hope there. These are the truths that you live by. The verities of the Christian faith that unite your heart together. And he says one baptism. which is obviously Credo Baptism. Possibly. I think we could all agree that it's a kind of initiatory sign that all believers go through. And in one sense, even though it does become a point of division, you know, amongst different Christians. In one sense, I mean, in that sense, I mean, I think we would all agree that, you know, all Christians have had it, you know. We may disagree on the mode and who that should be done on, but to one degree I think it's an initiatory rite that does unite us. And obviously, if we had an apostle around the center of the argument, then it would be real easy. But we don't, so. There was one, you met one. Oh yeah, on Sunday, Apostle Tina Cullen. I'm sorry, I should have asked. When was that? Sunday afternoon. Last week? Yeah, it was past Sunday. Oh, sure. Yeah, she had called asking what time our services were. No, no. She had asked some questions and I gave her straightforward answers. She said, do you believe in the Holy Ghost? I said, yeah, but probably not what you mean. So, I mean, I could have just left that, yeah, we believe, but I figured I didn't want, you know, I wanted for her to understand what we're about. And then number two, diversity of unity. Chris, why don't you read 7 to 11? No, Ephesians. I could have said Revelation, I didn't mean... But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, when he ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. Now this expression, he ascended, what does it mean except that he also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is himself also he, who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things. And he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers." Who is giving gifts here? Christ is giving gifts to the church. It says, each one of us. That is an interesting study. If you remember 4s and 12s, you can remember all the passages on the gifts. Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4. 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, so 4's and 12's. Another interesting note about gifts, notice who gives the gifts here. Jesus gives the gifts. In Romans 12, it says God gives the gifts. In 1 Corinthians 12, it says the Spirit. So you see a very, we often, what do we always call them? We call them spiritual gifts, but it's really all three persons within the Trinity give these gifts. But the reason why I thought it would be neat to look at this, because it says each one of us is given gifts. What does that suggest about each one of us? We all have something to contribute, and usually it's not the exact same thing. And so while there is unity, there is diversity within the church. And so, I think it's helpful to know that, well let me just ask, what's the difference between unity and uniformity? Unity is working together, uniformity everything is the same. Yeah, when everything is uniform, everything looks the same. You know, and so it would seem uniform to everybody as the same gifts. Everybody looks the same way, dresses the same way, acts the same way. You know, it would be like, I don't know, North Korea or something like that. It's like Eugene's t-shirt and thermal. Yeah. That's how you saw it in class. Exactly. Air, push back. Yeah, and watch on the rest. The world would be a better place. But this is one of the things that, I don't know, I just, I love about the body of Christ. Just the, I mean, just the diversity of people and gifts and And you see that even not only with different gifts, but we can look at different passages like Galatians 3.28, that there's neither male nor female, neither bond nor free, neither Greek nor Jew. In other words, there's different people from different ends of the social stratus, different ethnicities, and that's a beautiful thing. And yet united, this kind of unity, and that's part of the beauty of the body of Christ. So I think it's to be a... and I understand, and I think in a lot of instances people mean well, just like we need to target certain groups of people or something like that and that's understandable you know as far as reaching out and stuff like that but but we need to be careful that we don't just establish churches that just everybody looks the same and we're all you know either of the same ethnicity or the same you know sort of income or whatever and I understand by default sometimes geographically it's going to be that way and we live It is something of a unique situation in America with all kinds of mixes of different kinds of people, but I think we miss a lot of that if we only target certain groups of people. So that's different gifts. some specific gifts. We looked at this passage, this section last time, and so I don't want to spend too much time on this to neglect of others, but in verse 12 to 16 or 11 to 16, well what are the five gifts he mentions in verse 11? Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. So we see these five different gifts. What's the common theme in each of these gifts? They're leading gifts. They also seem to be word ministry related kinds of gifts. And what are these gifts for in verse 12? for equipping the saints for the work of service, and to what goal? The building up of the body of Christ. So each of these gifts are to equip the saints for the building up of the body of Christ. And I think it's safe to assume that what would pastors equip the saints for? to carry out aspects of shepherding? What would evangelists equip the saints for, to carry out aspects of evangelizing? What would teachers want to equip them with the content of the truth of Christianity? And then, you keep doing this and then with what aim and view, what are the three aims of the building up of the body of Christ in verse 13? Unity of the faith, and I take the faith there to be the content of Christian truth, knowledge of the Son of God, to a deepening knowledge of Christ, and to a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness which belongs to Christ, for there to be a kind of corporate maturing into Christ-likeness. So, on the one hand, you see there's kind of a tension, there is this unity, back in Four, he says, I'm sorry, verse three, there's this unity of the spirit and there's this foundational unity that's rooted in the trinity and the one body, one hope, one baptism, one faith. Yet there's a diversity and yet there's still a need to aim for a unity of the faith. I want to be careful here. I think a lot of times we just assume all these different New Testament passages that are talking about unity or talking about things like interdenominational unity and ecumenical unity, and I think there may be some applications for that, but I think it certainly needs to start first and foremost in the local body of the church. In fact, I mean, now this letter to Ephesus, it probably was a circulating letter, actually probably to the churches, the same churches we see in Revelation, the churches of Asia Minor. So certainly having the church in emphasis, having unity with the church in Thyatira, church in Pergamum is a good thing, but I think that the primary emphasis is that unity with inside the local body. And then that would of course I think then spill over into other local churches as well. It's just one of those things, the plethora of denominations. Denominations, it's not necessarily un-biblical, but it's non-biblical. It's kind of like the category of dating. In the sense of this pre-engagement kind of period. It's assumed there's going to be some kind of pre-engagement, but it's not un-biblical, but it's a non-biblical kind of category. So we kind of have to grab different principles to try and understand what's best with it. Let's move on to, this is going to play out more when we talk about the separation of unity under point 5, so let's swiftly move along to the hindrance of unity in Philippians 2. We've kind of touched on this from Ephesians 4 as well. Can you read Philippians 2 verse 1 to 4? Okay, so in verse 2 How can they make Paul's joy complete? Same mind, same love, united in spirit, one purpose. If you summarize that, unified. Now what do we know about the church in Philippi? What kind of disunity was there? Remember those two ladies he calls out at the end? Euodia and Syntagi. He tells them to live at harmony in the Lord. So there was evidently some kind of disunity in the church in Philippi. And then in 2.3, how can they have this unity? This can be ultimately summarized with a Christ-like attitude and perspective that he teases out in verse 5 to the end of that section there. Similar to Ephesians, Four, when we see the hindrances of unity, harshness, impatience, no love, selfishness. What else did we say there? intolerance towards one another. So here we see selfishness, empty conceit, looking out for our own personal interests are also hindrances to unity. I mean, basically sin. Sin causes disunity within the body of Christ. And so sin then needs to be dealt with to bring back that unity And then, of course, without stating explicitly here one sin, specific sins have been committed towards one another in the body of Christ. There needs to be forgiveness and confession and reconciliation. So those are just some of the hindrances to unity. Obviously here I'm talking primarily about unity within the local body of believers. Any questions on this? It is a beautiful thing and it's a grievous thing. You can see why Paul says, make my joy complete. There's just a heaviness when there's disunity, when there's relationships that have been soured and you want there to be peace. I mean, we know it in our own personal relationships, you know, when there's conflict in the home with husband and wife or amongst the children. It's a sad thing. It's something that you want to deal with quickly because you want to come back to that peace and to make reconciliation. It sounds like an oxymoron, but You cannot be unified with everyone and everything, or else it's an artificial unity. And so, in order to maintain unity, you have to separate from that which you don't have unity with. And so that's kind of what I'm driving at here. We see this in the previous section in Philippians 1.27-30. It says, "...only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come to you, or whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel." Now, keep in mind, he uses in verse 27 an interesting word here when he says, conduct yourselves. It's the word palatumai, which is a word that Act like a citizen. Act like a citizen in a manner worthy of the gospel. You see the noun form used in 320 where it says that we are citizens of heaven. Let me see if I can find that real quick. Yeah, our citizenship is in heaven. So here he's saying basically act like a citizen and that's important because If you think, there can often be a tremendous unity when you think of nationalism or patriotism. Act worthy like a gospel citizen. And how is that fleshed out in verse 27? If we want to look at it as our citizenship is in heaven, and that is because of the gospel of Christ that we receive, so we should act according to that citizenship. And what does that look like in verse standing firm? What kind of imagery does that conjure up? It's a kind of strong stance and it's a military term. Stand firm. Stand your ground. And it suggests that there's opposition. That you have to stand firm together because you have a common enemy. And then he also says, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. So there's not only holding of the ground, but there's a moving forward together in unity. And then in 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 is from God. In other words, don't be shocked when you face opposition. You're supposed to. That's actually, that should, in a sense, bring a measure of assurance that you're on the right team. Because when the enemies of the gospel, when the enemies of Christ are assaulting you, then you know that you're doing something right. Verse 29, for it has been granted, it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear to be in me. That there's going to be suffering, there's going to be persecution. I've experienced it. Now you're experiencing it and it's a gift from God. It's a grace from God. Any questions on that? Is that kind of alluding to, for not standing boldly, that kind of giving the charge to the enemy to come, you know, give confidence and overtake us in a sense? I guess if we're whimpering away or whimpering backward, it's given the opposition strength. It seems to be, in terms of war here, giving them courage by cowering. Yeah, I think we could take it in that way. for them in the sense of a sign that they realize that they're going to be destroyed. But I think maybe more so a sign, it's a kind of evidence from the perspective of believers that they're opposing Christ and will be trounced down so that you know that in a sense it's like when you go around Youngstown, you see the orange tag on the house. they've been tagged for destruction because they're manifesting themselves as an enemy of Christ. So I guess the question is whether it's a sign. Let me read it again. It says, In no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you." So, it's a sign. Yeah, NASB says, for them. Destruction for them. If one mind is striving side by side or together for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents, this is a clear sign to them of their destruction. It's almost the idea of our being unified, not frightened, striving for the gospel. That's the sign to them that they are going to be destroyed. It's somewhat similar, Chris, I think, to the idea you had, where You know, our standing against their beliefs is a sign to them that they're in danger. If we just embrace their beliefs or don't say anything, they gain confidence that I'm okay, you're okay. I think they don't see the sign. They don't see it as a sign to them that they're destined for destruction unless they Yeah, I was reading that and I think in a negative sense, and I think you're right, in a positive sense. But then he turns it around, right? What does he say? It's a sign to them, but it's also a sign to us. What does he say? Is it the gospel that is the sign? Yeah. I think, yeah, I think it's referring to the standing firm and it does become a sign of destruction for them. Whether you take that in a positive sense or a negative sign, oh, we need to repent or we're doomed to destruction either way, it becomes a sign. And I guess, I think what this does is it helps us to see that, okay, there is... we stand together in unity of the gospel. And so it just becomes important that whatever, especially when it comes to what is paraded as interdenominational unity, or just the whole kind of ecumenical movement of the 20th century that has spilled over into the 21st century, I mean, just think back to when it was kind of in full force and Martin Lloyd-Jones asked the question, we should just be simply asking the question, what is a Christian? Because we can't even agree on that. If we can't agree on what a Christian is, then what kind of unity do we actually have here? We see this unity as a unity for the faith of the gospel. If we can't agree on what the gospel is, what kind of unity can there be? And then we couple that with 2 Corinthians 6, where we're actually commanded by God to separate, that we're not allowed to have what you might call unholy alliances. I don't have time to go into why I think he's referring to specifically false teachers here, but it seems pretty clear, and if you read through 2 Corinthians, that the Corinthians were entertaining these false apostles, super apostles, who were masquerading as the angels of light and they were questioning Paul's authority. So the church at Corinth was in a kind of leadership crisis where they were flirting with unbelief and housing these false teachers. Notice in 2 Corinthians 6.14-18 Paul says, "...do not be bound together with unbelievers." for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean, and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty." This is one of those passages that we often quote in regards to dating relationships or people getting married. some application in regard to that, but I don't think that's what Paul had in mind. He doesn't talk about marriage, I guess, in 1 Corinthians 7, but a different letter. But that's not the context of what he's talking about. I think he's talking about aligning yourself with unbelief, with false teachers. And verse 14, He gives the command, do not be bound together with unbelievers. And then he gives reasons for that. What are the reasons he gives at the end of verse 14? What partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Light and darkness. Light and darkness carries the idea of evil and righteousness. So, there's a different course or different path that believers and unbelievers are on, so don't be bound together, yoked together with them. And then how about verse 15, what reason does he give here? Yes, so there's different masters or different captains, Christ and Belial, Belial seems to be another name for for Satan in this context, and if it's unbelieving thought, then it's been spawned from Satan. The second part of verse 15, between believer and unbeliever, there's different beliefs, different creeds. There's no harmony. And then verse 16, temple and idol, so there's different gods. And then verse 17 and 18, it's unprofitable. It says, therefore come out from their midst and be separate. says the Lord, do not touch what is unclean, and I will welcome you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. Now, granted here, we see this command for separation, and on the one extreme is the danger of you know, elevating what we might call more peripheral matters of the Christian faith to such a degree that, you know, anybody who doesn't believe exactly the same way I believe, you know, straight down the line, I have no fellowship, they're sons of Delisle. And you do see that in a grievous way in different parts of church history. I think one of the saddest events in church history was in 1530 or 1532 at the colloquy of Marburg. when there's an opportunity for Zwinli, Luther, Bucer, and a host of others to unite together, the Reformation, because the Reformation is taking place in Germany and Switzerland, is beginning to expand. You basically had two hard-headed personalities in Luther and Zwindle standing apart from one another on the issue of the Lord's Supper. There's that classic story of Luther writing on the table, you're of a different spirit. It's just kind of this black eye in church history. It's not to say it wasn't an important issue that they were dividing. In fact, there was, I think, 16 points of this kind of statement of faith that they had put together, and they agreed on 15 of them. It was just on the 16th one that they didn't agree, and therefore the Reformation was not united. And so you see different instances. There's other stories as well. There was an instance with George Whitfield where he was planning on preaching in Scotland. And this was at a time when the Erskine brothers and several other faithful Scottish Presbyterians had separated from the kind of main Scottish Presbyterian denomination. And the Erskine brothers wanted, in having Whitfield come and speak in Scotland, they asked him not to speak at any churches but their Presbyterian churches. And basically Whitfield said, well, why not? Erskine Brothers said, because they're churches of Satan. Whitfield said, well, how much more reason ought I to go preach at the churches of Satan? And there was a split, you know, with Whitfield and the Erskine brothers. And the Erskine brothers were faithful men. And they actually winded up coming back and there was some healing in their relationship with Whitfield. They realized that their standards had been a little bit too narrow. And yet we see other examples of unifying with unbelief that lead to terrible things. And so it does become a challenge, and a couple of years ago I did a series on, it was called Drawing Lines, Good Unity and Bad Unity, and just thinking through some of the some of the non-negotiable doctrines of scripture. And I guess we can just kind of close by throwing this out. What would you guys say? When it comes to working with other churches, other ministries, what do you think are some of the non-negotiables that you couldn't align yourself with if they didn't believe this, fill in the blank? and what you're doing with that. Social issues might be different than evangelical evangelism or things like that. Okay. Or mission. Okay, so part of it depends on the work you're doing. Yeah. The gospel. Yeah, distinctives of the gospel, so like justification by faith alone. Galatians 1 makes that pretty clear, that even if an angel from heaven comes to you with another gospel, let him be eternally condemned. We see that in Philippians as well, at the end of Philippians 1, united for the faith of the gospel. So it's at least those core tenets of the gospel. Yeah, the doctrine of Trinity, because it's really hard to have the doctrine of the Gospel without the doctrine of the Trinity, you know, the Father sending the Son and the Spirit doing His work. So sometimes it gets a little hard to say, because the immediate teaching that is off track might not be, somebody might grasp it. grasp the gospel and soak over, like, maybe the inerrancy of scripture or of evolution. The danger comes down the path that that eventually will lead generations of people as well. So I think there are still instances where it's not necessarily immediately the gospel. And I guess it just takes discernment as to what you're trying to prove. Sure, and at what point they are in that stage as well, you know, as far as, you know, because if it would appear that, you know, having this missing piece will lead to this, but at this point they haven't abandoned this, then there could be some working together, you know. Part of it is probably the worry against it. Wasn't there some type of ecumenical thing put together that both Dr. MacArthur and Dr. Sproul would not sign because it called Catholics Christians? Yeah, there was the Evangelicals and Catholics Together document in the early 90s. There was even a more recent one where they wanted to send it to the President about abortion. Yeah, there's the Manhattan Declaration. I think we need to understand that not all unity, it's not a one-size-fits-all package and there's a good biblical kind of unity, and there's an unbiblical, ungodly, sinful kind of unity. We at least need to be thinking that there are those two possibilities. In unifying with others on certain issues, if we're unifying because we agree on this, what are we saying that we don't agree on is less important than this thing that we're agreeing on? I think it's worth asking that question. I think, you know, when prayer, when they're coming together and praying, that always seems to be like the checking in my soul, my spirit. If I'm coming together with someone I know, it's not in agreement with the gospel for the purpose that we're all going to pray together. It's just not something I want to anticipate. Yeah, that's a good point. Good. All right. Well, let's start to kind of open up a difficult topic, and then just left it hanging there. But it is one of those things that there often are more questions than there are solid answers. But I think there are certain non-negotiables that the Scripture tells us are non-negotiables, namely doctrine, justification, my faith, the person of Christ. John says if you deny, he's come in the flesh, you're anti-Christ. the bodily resurrection of Christ and things like that, that are core tenets that cannot be compromised. Well, let's pray. Lord God, we come before you and we thank you.