And so today, John chapter 17, the last section of this chapter, verses 20 through 26, today's message, false versus true unity. Now, as we will see from these closing verses of this chapter, one of the high priorities of our Lord for his church is unity. And the Psalter reading we had earlier today from Psalm 133, that too emphasizes how wonderful it is when brothers dwell together in unity. Well, in these verses, and in several places in this chapter, Jesus specifically prays for the unity of the apostles. Now often this passage is singled out as a justification for various ecumenical organizations such as the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. And you even hear some folks who will refer to this passage as proof that division of any kind within the church is sinful. We look around us today and we see that there are not only hundreds of denominations of churches ranging from the very large and diverse Roman Catholic Church and the many Baptist denominations to the very small and obscure, and then of course there are probably thousands of independent churches that claim no connectional or denominational ties at all. And some people have concluded that that state of affairs is a sinful disobedience to the Lord's plan for His church. Now, I don't think anyone would disagree that unity is a vital thing in life for any group of human beings. For example, if an athletic team is to succeed, there must be a bond of unity among the team members. I remember reading somewhere that the great NFL coach Vince Lombardi once made the following observation where he said, and I quote, if you're going to play together as a team, you've got to care for one another. You've got to love each other. The difference between mediocrity and greatness is the feeling these guys, meaning the Green Bay Packers in this case, these guys have for one another, end quote. Well, long before Vince Lombardi, One of the leaders of the early church, a man we've referred to before from this pulpit, Justin Martyr, he wrote a letter to the emperor of Rome in which he sought to defend the Christian church from the slanderous attacks being made upon her in those days by Jews and pagans. And in explaining the dramatic transformation that Christ brings into the lives of believers, Justin wrote, and I quote him, before we became Christians, We used to value above all else money and possessions. Now we bring together all that we have and we share it with those who are in need. Formerly, we hated and killed one another. Now we live in peace. We pray for our enemies and we seek to win over those who hate us unjustly." End quote. So in both these quotes, we get an idea why unity is an important thing, and especially in Christ's church, and why Jesus here prays for that very thing. See friends, before we can reach out in love to our pagan friends, we must demonstrate God's love to each other, our fellow believers in Christ. You see, those men, the apostles, along with Paul, who would join them later, they would occupy a unique role in the history of God's dealings with the world. They, and they alone, are to be, were to be, the foundation on which the new covenant assembly, the Church of Jesus Christ, was being built. And we know that's true because in, for example, 1 Corinthians 3.10, Paul says, according to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builds on it. So he writes, Paul does, that he is the one who laid the foundation in that case. But in Ephesians 2.20, Paul refers there to the church as having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. So those men had a mighty task before them, one in which you and I, well, we have a continuing part to play as those who have come to follow Jesus as a result of their long past ministry now. But they were the ones who laid that foundation of the church. You and I continue to build on that foundation that they laid. And in both cases, Unity is essential to the success of the mission. Now, as we look at, let's look at verses 20 to 23. We read here that Jesus prays that our unity would be like that which he shares with his heavenly Father. I'm reading from the English Standard Version this time. Jesus says, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you love me." John 17, 21 to 23. So if we are going to have some idea of what Jesus means here, then we must have some idea about what he refers to. That is the unity that exists between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, this will be the third time in three weeks that I'm referring to the Nicene Creed, and I'm doing so now because it gives us some idea of what that unity is like. There, the Creed speaks of God the Son being of the same substance as God the Father, and it speaks of the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son. Our own Westminster Confession of Faith talks about this in chapter 2.3, and I'm going to quote it here. In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons of one substance, power and eternity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of one, neither begotten nor proceeding. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. The Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. So the doctrine of the unity of the Godhead and the nature of the Trinity, as you're probably already realizing, is not something easy to understand, is it? But that does not mean that it is unimportant. Quite the contrary. I think about the unity that we ought to have among ourselves. See, if we compare that with the unity within the Holy Trinity, the Lord teaches us something of the unfathomable nature of that mystery. So in other words, there is an aspect of our unity as believers that we cannot really fully comprehend and put a finger on. On the other hand, the Bible teaches us definite things about the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and those are to be the things on which we true Christian unity is based and we follow. Those are the things on which true Christian unity are to be based. So, in light of that, let's consider these things and what ought to be the real basis of true Christian unity. First of all, there must be unity in truth. We saw last time that Jesus declared that the word of the Lord is truth. Look up at verse 17. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. So in saying that, Jesus was drawing a line in the sand, so to speak, that the words of God Almighty are the only truth. Indeed, it is that truth that is to sanctify us or set us apart and make us holy. So the very first essential of Christian unity is unity in the truth of God's Word, Holy Scripture. And that unity must be in evidence from the lowest to the highest levels of the church's organizational structure. See, one of the reasons that creeds and catechisms and confessions of faith have been produced by churches is to facilitate this unity in the truth. Now, in our church and our denomination, the Bible Presbyterian Church General Synod, our unity in truth is centered first and foremost in the Bible as the infallible and inerrant Word of God. It is the supreme authority. But the Bible must be interpreted and it must be rightly understood. As a secondary standard, therefore, we have our Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms as a summary of what the Bible teaches in those areas where we must have unity. And this unity in the truth must be evident, first of all, among the officers of the church. And it should be evident among the members of the congregation. You know, if we've got a board of elders, a session, where let's say we had five elders and two reject the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, one believes in speaking in tongues and continuing revelation, and one believes in predestination and one denies it, well, you don't have unity, do you? One reason when people are asked to be admitted to our congregation, to our church, we ask them to affirm our standards as being agreeable to and founded on the Word of God. That's a little bit different than saying, do you accept the Westminster Confession of Faith as your own confession of faith? But at a minimum, we want people to understand that they must agree that the creeds and our confessions are agreeable to and founded on the word of God. Now, from the local session, this unity must be evident also in the presbytery, and from there, it must be evident in the general synod of the entire denomination of our church. So if there is a lack of unity on the central authority of the Bible as God's infallible truth and on the confession of faith as a secondary standard of what the Bible teaches, on any of those levels, there's going to be trouble to a greater or lesser extent in the body of Christ if there's not unity. If we're not united on those things, then we can't even think about representing to the world the kind of unity Jesus has with the Father and the Holy Spirit. I mean, think about it this way. I hope this is a much easier way to understand the point. Can you imagine God the Son telling God the Father, well, you know, that's your interpretation of the facts. I disagree. Or God the Holy Spirit telling God the Son, hey, you've got your truth and I've got mine. Of course, such a thing is unthinkable. And yet, that is exactly how some Christians believe the church ought to be operating. Listen friends, when the Lord brought you and me into his church, he didn't bring us into it so he could learn from us. He brought us into it so we could learn from him and so that he could use your gifts for the advancement of his kingdom. I think one of the saddest spectacles in our time has been the efforts, and I mentioned this at the beginning, of some so-called Christian churches to form unions across denominational boundaries. They want to form a union so that the fragmentation of the various denominations will be minimized. But you see, the only way something like that has been achieved organizationally has been at the expense of this essential part of unity, and that is the truth. Groups like I mentioned at the beginning, the World Council of Churches, National Council of Churches, to some extent the current Gospel Coalition, they are composed of churches and theologians and teachers that no longer believe in the absolute truths of the Bible. And they have, many of them, if not one and all, substituted man-made union for God-made unity in the truth. All right, then, the second aspect of unity, the second essential aspect, is love. Biblically based and understood love. This is a vital component of that relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Lord speaks of this in verse 23, where he refers to the love he has for his followers and the love that exists between the Father and the Son. And in verse 24, he speaks of the love that existed between Father and Son from before the foundation of the world. Now I said this aspect of love is a vital component, and I say that because both the Word of God teaches it and because it is an obvious thing. If the unity of the church is nothing but truth, or maybe put that another way, if all a denomination has is doctrinal correctness and no love, It will fail miserably in its work for the Lord. Sad to say, just as there are some groups that without hesitation jettison the truths of the faith for the sake of union, so too there are some who blind themselves to the fact that love is one of the most important parts of the truths of God. It is tragic that some of the most vicious and mean-spirited people have been church people, people who claim to be Christians. One of the biggest hindrances to real unity in the church is the lack of genuine Christ-centered love among fellow believers. I have never been mountain climbing. Maybe some of you have, but among people who are given to that pastime or hobby or lifestyle or whatever you may call it, mountain climbers, you know, rope themselves together when they climb. And that way, if one climber should slip and fall, he would not fall to his death because the others would hold him up so he could regain his footing. You see, the church ought to be united in love just like that, so that when one member slips and falls, the others hold him up until he regains his footing. All members of the church are roped together in love by the Holy Spirit. Right belief, right doctrine, genuine Christ-like love must go together in the church from top to bottom. Or there will be a serious breach of unity somewhere down the line. So, unity in truth first of all, unity in love thirdly, and then unity of purpose. You see, in the Trinity, we see the perfect example of unity of purpose. All three persons of the Godhead are united in the one holy purpose of redemption. God the Father and creator of all things chooses all whom he wills to save. God the Son takes it upon himself, our very nature, and delivers himself as a propitiation for the sins of all of those who the Father has chosen. And God the Holy Spirit comes into the world to apply that redemption to all of God's elect people. So there is in this then a perfect unity and harmony of purpose. So that is the example that we follow in the church. And this is the sort of unity that Jesus prayed for us to have in terms of our purpose and our work. Now unfortunately, Christians have often failed to follow that unity of purpose in this case. And frequently, we pull apart from each other rather than pulling together. Someone told me recently about a visit to a small mental hospital. There were, well it wasn't so small, excuse me, it was a large mental hospital and there were hundreds of dangerous, criminally insane men who were incarcerated there. And in that entire compound, the visitor noticed that there were only three armed guards. And that visitor to the asylum asked one of the guards, well he asked his guide, he said, aren't you people afraid that these deranged inmates will overpower the guards and escape? His tour guide responded, nope, we are not afraid at all because lunatics never unite. And I have to say that Christians sometimes behave like lunatics. We do so in the ways that we manifest a determined lack of purposeful unity. And just as there must be unity in love and truth among the officers of the church and among the members of the presbytery and the general synod, there also must be unity of purpose. Now you might well wonder how a church can determine what its purpose as a church ought to be. I mean, after all, there are many different people with many differing ideas about what we ought to be doing as a church or any particular congregation. And it's just here at this point, you see, that we often run into trouble. Because in the long run, if we are united in God's truth and in God's love, we already have the solution to that dilemma. We have already been given a purpose and reason for being as a church. And that purpose and that reason has been given to us by the one who made this prayer in John 17. Now we can differ on how to achieve goals, but you know the biggest problem many churches have is realizing that the purpose and the goal has already been decided for the church. And that we are not at liberty to alter it. And I invite you sometime, maybe just do a search for churches in Greenville County. And you get on some of these church websites and you'll see our purpose statement, our mission, who we are, and you'll see all kinds of crafted statements about the purpose of this particular group, that denomination. And notice sometime how well or well does not comport with what scripture says is the mission of the church. Now another area that frequently intrudes on our unity of purpose is the area of competition. You know, we sometimes forget that insofar as any church or denomination adheres to the absolute truths of Holy Scripture and the historic Christian faith of the creeds and confessions of the church, we are all working towards the same goal. So competition can be, on one level, a good thing, but divisive, self-glorifying competition is contrary to the Lord's purpose and His prayer in John 17. I was reading recently about three churches that were located, this was many, many, many years ago, but they were located on the three corners of a town square at an intersection. And those churches didn't get along very well with each other. They had, over the years, allowed a spirit of divisive competition to take over. Well, one Sunday, each of those three churches decided to open up their services with a rousing high-powered song service and hymn sing. And since it was in the middle of the summer, much like it is here now, they all three had their doors and windows wide open. It was, you know, before the days of air conditioning. Doors and windows wide open. Well, the congregation on one corner began singing the old hymn, Will there be any stars in my crown? Well, the strains of that hymn had barely faded away when the congregation across the street answered with the song, no, not one, not one. And that had scarcely finished when the third church let loose with, oh, what glory that will be for me. Beloved friends, as we close out this study in John 17, and as we prepare ourselves now for receiving the sacrament of the Lord's supper, as we do each Lord's day, Let us be reminded that if there is a place for competition among churches, well, let that competition be in the opposition to those who deny the scriptural fundamentals of our faith. Let us outdo each other in being stridently faithful to the truths of God's law word. And let us remember that no matter what the organizational level of the Church of Christ, we are all called to be united in truth, love, and purpose. And the fruit of our Christian unity, it grows out of our union with Christ our King. Let us pray.