Sermon: Unity

#1741A
James Beaubelle
Given 30-Dec-23; 42 minutes 2023-12-30

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I do not think it is possible that we would ever meet two people exactly alike, even those of the same family or as myself, a twin, would we find identical personalities. Of this I have firsthand experience. I would venture to say even their character would be different between one person and the next and that there has never been two people created by God that are exactly alike.

We also find there are natural differences between people and very much so between men and women. By natural I mean the way we are internally wired, predisposed by our Creator. Just as we have external differences, we also have many internal differences. Many a wife has spent years trying to change their husbands, with minimal success, and many a husband has put unrealistic expectations on how a wife should see the world as he does, only to find out she has a mind of her own and can never be a complete copy of anyone but herself.

Unlike the world today that looks for what they call a gender neutral society, thinking that both sexes should be viewed as equal in all things and have all opportunities, this can never really happen, can it? People are different and it will always be this way. By nature and by nurture in the way each one is raised and lives, no two lives lived are built up in the same fashion.

Early on in our Bible, we see this example with the two sons of Adam and Eve, Abel and Cain, as you know. Raised by the same parents that we should think they had an equal amount of nurturing, turned out very different from each other. Hebrews 11:4 tells us, "By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous."

Cain, as we know, was far from his brother's obedience to God, and like Satan, was a murderer from the beginning, and he was cast out, as verse 16 of Genesis 4 tells us, from the presence of the Lord. And from there, he traveled east to the land of Nod.

All of us have had different life experiences from one another and this affects everyone's personal worldview and makes us to be individually different one from another. And this is okay, and should be welcomed, for it enriches our lives as we strive together in our walk with God. What matters is in the way we live these different lives and it is here, by the choices we each make, we can come together and find our common ground. If what one does can help in keeping theirs' and others' lives going along in a proper order, and by proper order, I mean, in the way God would have us conduct our lives, then it is right and it is helpful. If what they do hinders themselves or another person's progress in this life in living as God would have us live, then it is wrong. Some things are just that plain and simple to see.

Right living with good conduct will always produce peace among the brethren and wrong choices will naturally produce strife. Our Bible spends a lot of words showing us what this proper order of conduct looks like, showing us what good character traits we all need to be built up with as we work to emulate our Savior.

It also calls out what is evil and what must be put out of our lives. There are reasons for this and the one I see clearly is by the accepting of these God-given changes in our lives that lead us in the way that we may follow Christ and adapt His way of living, gives us all and brings us all to the common ground we need to be unified into one body, one family, and most importantly, one Spirit.

Please turn over to Ephesians 4. Paul, of course, can say this more eloquently than myself so it is best we read his words to gain our best insight into my topic of unity today that we strive for even though we are all different from one another. (I would hold a marker in Ephesians 4. We will be going through all 16 verses.) We are going to start in verse 1 and we will end up in 16; we will start in 1 and eventually get there. In these verses, he tells us the why, the how, and the who should put forth effort in keeping unity among the brethren. Those who are called out of this crazy world and being prepared for the next phase of God's purpose are the intended people this was written for.

Ephesians 4:1 I [that is Paul speaking], therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, . . .

This verse tells us by what source this request is made; by a man who declared himself captive and under the authority of Jesus Christ. He goes on to tell us or teach us what we should be doing, walking through life in a worthy or godly manner. And he adds in the why: because of our calling we have received from God.

Ephesians 4:2 . . . with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, . . .

Here, he reminds us of the good work the virtue of humility will do as we are unified with others who are not exactly the same as we are, but are on the same common ground that we ourselves find ourselves on. Just as we have trials and suffer under the pressure of this life, others around us have not escaped trials of their own, even if we do not know what they are. It is a common aspect of the life we all have a part of as we endure to the end of our days in the flesh and we have our faith tested. Paul then goes on to emphasize the how we are to accomplish this when he says, "bearing with one another in love." This is an echo of the commandment our Savior gave to His disciples.

John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another."

This is our outward action and requires us to always have an outgoing concern for others coupled with a duty to help where we can. It is also the outward expression of our faith manifested in the works we do, as the apostle James explains to us.

Please turn over to James chapter 2, verse 14. This brings us to the idea of the working unity of our faith to one of application in the faith that has been delivered to every called child of God. Verse 14 kicks off the apostle's message on how faith must always be coupled with good works.

James 2:14-20 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also by faith itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But some will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

He goes on to give the example of Abraham showing our justification comes by our works. It ends in verse 26 saying,

James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.

Also, we should surely all believe it is our duty to help and to work at doing just that because this is how our works of supporting one another builds unity among the brethren. This is the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts for each other.

Ephesians 4:3 . . . endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Paul draws God into the equation and tells us we must endeavor, meaning we must put forth personal effort, to keep our unity and oneness not only with the Father and Son, but with each other as well. Unity is a very descriptive term. It leaves no one out of our view in this.

Paul is telling us we have the tools and the ability to do this because we all share in the same Spirit. Those who are receiving our help and those who are giving help are one. Never to be overbearing with each other or telling anyone how they messed up and you are going to reach over and give them some help. But in quiet peacefulness and humility offer what is needed, and what is needed of course, is your expression of love towards each other and your honest concern for their well being.

Unity always requires our active participation. Passivity will never build the unity God expects from each one of us.

Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; . . .

Here, Paul brings into view the virtue of our hope that every child of God has in their hearts. That is you and me. Every one of us has concerns if we are falling short before our Lord and every one of us has placed a virtue of hope on God to keep us in the narrow way as we move forward to being in the Kingdom of God.

Hope is that virtue that looks forward to our future good. It is our expectation that God will do with us as He promised in spite of our mistakes. And because of the unity we share with Him, it is a living hope for a rest on eternal promises from a faithful God that we have placed our hope upon. This is more common ground that we are all on, for we all have this godly hope placed within us.

The world has many hopes. They hope that science can solve their problems. They hope that God will hear their prayers for the desires of their heart or that their good fortune will come sooner than later. The worldly hope will fail for it is centered upon themselves.

Please turn over to I Peter chapter 1. Here, Peter tells us where this one hope we have comes from.

I Peter 1:20-22 He [that is, Christ] indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him [that is telling us by the work that Christ has done] believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love for the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.

This oneness, this unity we share with all of the God Family, is the only way this can work in creating in us a new and a clean heart, for a divided house cannot stand for very long. A divided heart between works and faith will fail. Those whose faith and hope are focused on God by the work of Christ can stand firm in the unity with Him and in so doing, with each other. Our Lord is not the author of confusion and does not create personal conflicts in His own body. This always comes from something else.

Let us head back to Ephesians 4 now and read verse 5, where Paul continues his focus on the unity of all being in one. Verse 5 is a short sentence Paul uses to clarify a common misbelief in the world that says there are many roads leading to a oneness with God and a unity among His children, but all roads do not bring someone into God's Family. And so the focus in this verse is in the singularity of God having only one way. This is ground zero for showing us what supports this common ground we all stand upon.

Ephesians 4:5 . . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism; . . .

This verse should be a reminder to us every time we read it to why our calling is so precious. If we focus on the truth of only one way into the presence and acceptance by God, we can see each item works perfectly to what joins us into His Family, what ties each and every one of us together in unity because all of us have received these gifts from God. The only conclusion should be a strong unity amongst ourselves. We all share equally in the blessings. No one is greater or lesser as we stand before God as one of His own. No one's baptism or faith is of more or less value than anyone else's as we each build upon these gifts.

On to our next verse, where Paul continues with the thought of us all tied together as one. Here, he has shifted from "one Lord" he used in verse 5 to explain our unity with Christ, and now tells us this unity is also with the Father.

Ephesians 4:6 . . . one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

We need to slow down and let this sink into our finite little brains. Paul just told all of the Ephesians, and by extension all of us, that God is in all of us by His Spirit. He is with us 24/7. His watchful care for us and his actions on our behalf are never far away. Unity can get no closer than this. We have been told we are the apple of His eye. His watchful care for us is always there. Even if at times we mistakenly think otherwise, if we look back to verse 5 when he said "one Lord," then this "all in all" statement includes Jesus Christ as well. He has drawn close to us. It is now our goal to continually draw close to Him. This is what will keep the unity we all need as we prepare for the Kingdom of God.

Let us go on to verse 7. I kind of lumped together verses 7 to 13 as we move through the end verses a little quicker. Verse 7 becomes a turning point in Paul's teaching as it turns to focus on what God does for each of us to build up the Body and to unify His called-out ones. It has many common features we can find in his letter to the Corinthians in I Corinthians 12:12-31, where he speaks of the organizational structure and of the diversity of the gifts provided to His church and to each one of us individually, but they are all unified by one Spirit, as verse 7 and I Corinthians says, "Given to each one of us for the profit of us all."

Verse 7 of Ephesians 4 introduces the aspect of grace, another common ground we all stand upon, when he says,

Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Clearly, we are being shown here that we have a duty to one another by the grace that has been given to each of us to use these gifts to the benefit of each other. I would add here that it would be an offense on our part to reject using what has been so graciously and freely given to us. This would come under the heading, at least in my mind, of dereliction of duty. Let us look at an example of this.

Luke 12:48 "For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more."

This closing statement of Christ comes right after His comments describing the rewards of the faithful servant versus the punishment of the servant who did not do his master's will. Sowing disunity or rejecting what has been given to strengthen His people will have its reward, just not the one we would like at times. Luke 12:47 says, "And that servant who knew his master's will and did not prepare himself [that is item one] or do according to his will [that is item two], shall be beaten with many stripes."

I think we all get the message. Christ expects all of us to use what He provides His servants to serve His church and each other.

Let us return to where we left off in Ephesians 4 and read this once more.

Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given, according to the measure of Christ's gifts.

This has everything to do with Christ being the head of the Body and why He told His disciples in John 16:7 that it was to their advantage that He leave them. Christ would no longer be physically present to hold the unity He had built between Himself and His disciples from falling apart. That if He did not depart, the Helper will not come to them, but that He must depart and would send him. This was all about empowering His disciples then and now, that is us, and unifying them in one Spirit, and this Helper would guide them in all truth.

As verse 13 teaches us, our sharing of the same doctrines and the same truths supplied by this help among ourselves is a major portion of the [garbled] we all need to remain unified with each other. Without His help we can do nothing, as stated in a question by our Lord in Amos 3:3, "Can two walk together unless they are agreed?" Not for very long, I would guess.

Let us drop down to verse 11 (I am heading back to Ephesians 4) that begins a list of gifts given to the church for getting its work done and it starts with the people Christ provides for us. Notice these men are personally chosen by Christ to fulfill the necessary assignments at any given time in the church's history. As much as we have a history personally of a democracy, this church is not that. He supplies or withholds His gifts to the benefit of us all.

Ephesians 4:11-13 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers [verses 12 and 13 tell us why He does this], for the equipping of the saints [that is us] for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Being complete to the stature of Jesus Christ is a very tall order that we all surely struggle with to achieve, and by ourselves we would falter, but unified collectively together within the Body of Christ we succeed. I know this is true because in Revelation 19:7 we read, "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." If we believe this to be a true statement that the bride, those that the Father has called into the care of His Son, can be made ready by the gifts and the works that His Son provides then our hope and faith are properly placed on the work of our Lord and Savior. And that we can be ready and we can all walk in unity one with another. This may at times be seen as goals too difficult to accomplish, but they are achievable within the framework of His grace and Spirit that He provides.

Let us drop down and read verse 14.

Ephesians 4:14 That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

We should see this as a reference to our spiritual maturity. We will always be God's children by creation, and I personally will always desire and be grateful for that honored title. But children must grow. They must!

Verse 13 just gave us direction we must grow towards, calling it the "fullness of Christ." And Paul appears to see this growth as necessary for maintaining unity within the body of Christ. If all we know is that Christ died for our sins and know not the truth of corresponding doctrines, if we are without the knowledge of the law or of the proper ways to worship God and more, how are we to do it and how are we to be unified with Him and among ourselves?

Certainly God's truth revealed to us is more of the common ground that ties each of us to one another. For if or when we were to stop growing, we would not be much different than the world around us. Is the world unified? Is the world listening to God? Are they honestly seeking after God? Or are they not confused on almost every issue of the purpose of God? All I have left to say on this point is, let us grow in truth and let us work as a unified body as we search the Scriptures for the revelations of our God, that we can worship our God in both spirit and truth, both being amply provided by Him for us, that we may be one with Him.

Now we are getting down there. Verses 15 and 16 instructs us how to speak to one another and possibly to those living around us in the world when it says we should be speaking in truth and love, and points out that the eventual goal of our unity is to be with Christ, having grown in all things and in the framework of love for Him and with each other, and then we are reconciled with Him. Verse 16 becomes a summary verse for the preceding 15 verses and shows us our part in the Body may differ one from another, but every joint is tied together for achieving the effective growth in the Body with each other that we may build up one another. Verse 16 reads,

Ephesians 4:16 From whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies [that is, each of us doing our part], according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself and love.

I do not know if you picked up on this, but from Paul's opening of the topic (verse 2, I think it is) of unity until the end just here, he uses the virtue of love as an overarching framework for his church's unity and that it would be a major characteristic or outward sign of God's people at any time in their history. No longer a circumcision of the flesh, but God has circumcised His children's hearts and the tool He has done this with is His love placed on each one of us. I John 4:11 tells us this is the reason why we can love one another. When the apostle says, "Beloved [that is code for you and me], if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." This outward expression of our hope is always manifested in our love toward each other.

Let us turn over to I John chapter 3, where the apostle sets up two opposing views in determining who are the children of God and who is not. Here, we find how much our outward concern for each other and our love for each other can be a determining factor in passing from death to life. When he says those who do not love abide in death, this is serious stuff!

I John 3:10-15 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Lastly, I want to mention a few items of what can cause disunity among God's people. I John 3:15 just mentioned hate as a motive to create disunity between two or more individuals and views it in its spiritual context of being on parody [par?] to physical murder. But both factors can cause love and unity to fail if we begin to lose our focus on the work of Christ as Head of His church.

Carnality is still in our hearts and must be watched over us by us diligently. The old man in us dies a slow death. It also can be easy to fall into habits of being judgmental of the brethren. No two people are alike, as I mentioned in the beginning, and this can create friction between personalities that see each other in a bad light or even as an adversary. One can find fault where no fault exists, yet there are those that can and will judge one another. But it is Christ—and only Him—that can judge correctly and should be the judge of His people.

There is an exception we are getting to in this. I would add, if we do judge someone, we are inevitably judging ourselves. Matthew 7:2 is very clear on this point. "For with the judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." Not might, it will be measured back to you.

There are rare exceptions that I just mentioned. When the men Christ has placed in the Body to discern and to minister and care for His people, become aware of what is creating a problem and must step in to keep the flock from being harmed. This is the authority given to them by Christ and one of the main reason He Himself appoints those over His people. He knows who He is putting there. The use by Paul in verse 11 where he says "He Himself," I view this as a double positive statement. There can be no doubt by anyone. No one who is speaking under whose authority they administer from.

Another problem area is falling under the persuasions of the evil one. We would not know anything about that, would we folks? We think of Satan working to tempt God's people into sin, to put our unrighteous behavior between us and our righteous God, who we know hates sin for all the damage it does. This he does do. He has not given up work in that department.

But he is just as likely to try to sow the seeds of disunity among God's people and disrupt our walk with each other, knowing full well that if we can be isolated from one another, we can easily be persuaded to be isolated from God. Most people that leave the church do not just all of a sudden we get up and go, but they drift away. The answer for this, of course, is always to be drawing close to the Father and Son, and when trouble arises to rebuke Satan by putting on the whole armor of God, as we know well.

Ephesians 6:11 tells this, "That you may be able to stand against the wiles [or the scheming] of the devil." Romans 16:17 gives us a simple course of action we can take to avoid divisive action by others that Satan may try to stir up against us. Verse 17 reads, "Now I urge you brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrines which you learned, and avoid them." Seems simple enough.

Verse 18 mentions their use of flattering speech—there is a tip off—and smooth words as tools of their trade. Satan's first attack on man was his smooth words to Eve in the Garden. He is still the same, everybody. He was a liar and he still is!

The last point for today (for there are others), is probably the most common and may be the most destructive of all the things that can sow division among God's people, that means among ourselves, and that is the human propensity to gossip. But let us use a stronger word for this activity: that it is a sin of slander. Words that can place a stumbling block in front of another or damage the reputation of their character should be avoided at all costs among ourselves. Yet, who among us is perfect? Not me, not you.

How easily our Lord could find fault with any one of us, a weakness in our character or in the way we do certain things, yet Christ, He is silent as He works with us to overcome our faults. Many times outgoing concern is to say nothing. Look closely at anyone and you will always find areas of growth still under construction.

Jude said there would be mockers in the end days, those who would walk not in the spirit of truth and in the unifying Spirit of God, but in their own lust. Verse 19 of Jude says, "These are sensual [or worldly] persons who cause division, not having the Spirit." Their tongues are unbridled and any number of people can be caught up in their net of promoting evil. Speaking love does not do this but works to build, never to destroy another by tearing down another brother or sister in the Lord's house.

We all have seen mistakes or we have heard words spoken that were unnecessary. Let those words end with us. In this way, we can train our minds to be like Christ, leaning towards compassion rather than ridicule or putting another in a bad light. All men want mercy and all men will reap what they have sown.

Chapter 3 in the book of James has a heading that says, The Untamable Tongue. I have always had an argument with that heading. I am going to bring it up again today. This was put in, not by God as we know, but by the editor. James does bemoan the use of the tongue that can hurt others. Of course he does. The term comes from verse 8 of chapter 3, and I am going to read it out of the New King James.

James 3:8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

Great. I own one of those.

But his statement can confuse our understanding. He is correct; no man can tame the tongue. But God can and does. Who remembers their speech prior to their calling? Was it more worldly than it is this day? Has it not been tamed by the fact of God being with you? Certainly it is the work He does and continues to do. Did we fall once into the use of slander that we no longer tolerate in ourselves? This, too, is the work He has done. This is the process of sanctification growing with us over time. These are the works that bring us to the fullness of Christ.

I will say briefly as I wrap up here that there are other causes of disunity that exist and must be watched over. Jealousy, a form of covetousness; pride; unable to esteem others better than yourself; anger, as we heard John speak about hate or the lack thereof; and contentions over doctrines. And more. We can always find more that can be barriers to us for holding fast to our faith, to our hope, and to our love, for the unity with God and with each other as we work.

We can start turning over to I Corinthians chapter 1. (I was smart. I put a ribbon there.) We will close here today in verses 4 through 9, which shows us we have much help in staying unified and we need the help—we know we do—under the guiding hand of our Savior Jesus Christ. We would accept it from no one else.

I Corinthians 1:4-9 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift [Is that not great news?], eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ [I think we are all doing that], who will also confirm you to the end [aha! help], that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. [and we need that!] God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

We must believe He is faithful and always has been. If our God be with us, who can stand against us?

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