Unity of Believers This is a transcript of Jay Lockhart s Sermon September 14, 2014 at the Gilmer, Texas Civic Center. Psalm 133 is one of a grouping of Psalms made up of 15 Psalms beginning with Psalm 120 and going through Psalm 134. There are 15 Psalms that are called songs of Ascent and it is believed that these Psalms were sung by the pilgrims in Israel as they went up to Jerusalem on the three times that God Himself designated during the year. These wonderful messages of these Psalms of Ascent teach us important things about God, about ourselves and about our relationships, with one another and with God. I want to begin today by looking closely at this song so you will notice how it s laid out again. Psalm 133 begins with behold. That word means; come to attention stand off a bit and gaze upon something that is of great importance. He says behold, behold how good, the word. Good means beneficial. How good and pleasant. The word pleasant means delightful how beneficial and delightful it is when brethren dwell together in unity. We believe that David wrote Psalm 133 and David of course was the greatest king that Israel ever had. He recognized that in Israel there was a brotherhood. When David became king and incidentally the second king of Israel for seven years he reigned over only a part of Israel. He reigned over Judah. But then he brought together the entire kingdom and ruled over Israel and Judah for another 33 years or for 40 years in all. He brought them together as a great brotherhood of people. It wasn t simply that they were related to each other because they were all Israelites but they had a covenant relationship with God. They were God s people. He had selected them to be His people. They were children of God and so they were brothers and sisters to each other and he said how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. David brought the people together, he had united them. But there was a far greater unity that they enjoyed because of their relationship with God. They were united with each other. They were united with God. Then David gives 2 illustrations. He says this unity of brethren to each other and to God this unity that is good and pleasant, is like the oil that was poured upon the head of Aaron that ran down across his beard and across his garments. What is that about? Aaron was the brother of Moses. He was the first high priest in Israel and the priests represented the people to God. Under the Law of Moses the high priest would enter into the most holy place of the tabernacle and later the Temple. With the blood of an animal he would sprinkle blood upon the mercy seat the Ark of the Covenant where the tablets of stone were stored. The Commandments no one could keep perfectly so everybody in Israel needed mercy over the commandments. There was the mercy seat and the high priest would sprinkle the blood of that animal over the mercy seat before God. God forgot their sin for a year. The High priest occupied a most important place in Israel. He was ordained of God to represent the people to God himself and then the people received blessings from God. David said that s the way the unity of brothers as blessings flow from God to people who are united with each other and united with God and are dedicated to the service of God. God pours out great blessing. 1
The second illustration is the dew of Mount Herman. People who have studied the geography of the Bible know that Mount Herman was in the northern extremity of the land of Israel. It was the tallest of the mountains. It reached nearly 10,000 feet toward Heaven. David speaks of the dew of heaven or the dew of Herman because the streams flow down from Mount Herman across the Sea of Galilee into the Jordan Valley. The Jordan River wound its way southward and brought blessing to all the land and life to the land. David said that s the way unity among brothers is. Here is God, represented by Herman, pouring out blessings as far down south as Zion the mountain on which Jerusalem was built. God chose that place as a special place for his people. There they dwelled together in unity. God poured out the blessings upon them including as the last line of the Psalms says, Life evermore or everlasting. This Psalm commends unity wherever it s found and encourages unity where it is not found. Today I want to talk with you about the unity that is to exist among God s people. There are three things that I hope to accomplish today. The first is that I want us to see that biblical unity among God s people is encouraged. It is something that God is interested in, that he wants all of us to be interested in. It is something that is held up as a great blessing for God s people. Biblical unity is what God wants among his people. The emphasis of scripture is upon unity. Let me illustrate it in three ways. First of all there is the prayer that Jesus prayed near the end of his earthly ministry. It is recorded in the 17 th chapter of the Gospel of John. Here Jesus in the shadow of his own cross is preparing to die for the sins of the world and what does he think about? He thinks about us. And in John 17:20-21 he prayed, Father, neither do I pray for my apostles only but for all of them who will believe on me through their words. That they all may be one as you father are in me and I in you that they may be one in us. Jesus so desired that his people be united and he gave an important reason for it in verse 21 here in John 17. He said, May they all be one as you are in me and I in you that they may be one in us that the world may believe that you have sent me. The unity among God s people is a powerful testimony to the identity of Christ that the world may believe that God sent Him. Illustration number two is the plea of the apostle Paul as found in 1 Corinthians 1:10. He said, I beseech you brethren in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That you all speak the same thing that you be fitly joined together in the same mind the same judgment. He said, that there be no divisions among you. In Scripture emphasis is placed upon unity in the prayer of Christ and in the pleading of Paul. And Paul in Ephesians chapter 4 laid down a plan for unity. He begins that important section by saying, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling wherewith you were called. And then he sets out how they may walk worthy of their calling. He said, With all lowliness in meekness with long-suffering forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. That is the unity that the Spirit of God makes possible; that you keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Then he said, There s one body. That s the church in Ephesians, the Church that Jesus said that he would build. There is one church one body and one Spirit; the Holy Spirit who gives life to that body, even as you are called in hope of your calling. Our hope is to live eternally with God. Then he said, there s one Lord the Lord Jesus Christ whom, we give our allegiance to whom we surrender. There s one Lord there s one faith that is the body of truth that God has revealed to us 2
that will lead us as a light leads one in darkness so that we might please him. There s one faith, one Lord. Then he said there is one baptism that is a burial in water for the forgiveness of sin that places us in Christ where salvation is found. Then he closed that section by saying, and there s one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all. He laid down a plan for the people of God to be united. The emphasis of the Bible is the unity of God people. Let s move to a second area that I want to emphasize today. I want to say that historically, unity has been pursued through the years. Number one: a few years ago there was a movement among the major mainstream denominations of America and other countries that was called an ecumenical movement. It was an effort for them to get closer together to work out some kind of unity. However, it served to be simply a compromise. Because what they did is they understood that they all, in addition to the Bible, had their own specific creeds that set forth what they as a religious group believed. Now the question might be raised if somebody is going to have a creed in matters religious why not just hold up the Bible? Why have, a human man-made creed that guides and directs the affairs of that religious body? But they were not going to lay aside their human creeds. And so they decided that they work out some kind of a union on things that they could agree upon and then they would simply not talk about what they disagreed about and just go on being their particular denomination. From the beginning it was a failure. Earlier in church history in the 16 th century the world had just come to what would prove to be the end of what the historians call the dark ages. Jesus had begun his church in the first century and had warned that people would not always follow His way. Soon men began to depart from the gospel as Christ gave it. It threw the religious world into a 1000 year period called the dark ages. Things occurred in the name of religion during those thousand years that are almost unimaginable and unbelievable. One of the major things was that the church of that day took the Bible away from the people saying that they couldn t understand it anyway and that only a qualified clergyman could understand, which is something we don t read about in the Bible. But only a qualified clergyman could explain what the Bible meant. The people had the light removed from them because we will remember that the Bible says, Your word the word of God is a lamp unto my feet and a light in my path. Psalm 119:105. So the light was turned off and that s why the historian calls it the dark ages. But there were some who became dissatisfied with religion of the day and they set out to bring about a return to the Bible. And what that really meant was they wanted to give the Bible back to the people. And they were somewhat successful with that but they were out to reform the darkness of their day. And if you reform darkness what you have is darkness that s reformed. You still have darkness. It really didn t enter into their imagination to simply bypass the religion of the day and go all the way back to the beginning of Christianity and seek to be what the early disciples of Jesus were. This is called the Reformation movement that occurred in Europe beginning in the 16 th century. You know that out of the Protestant Reformation, as it was called, came the major denominational organizations that we have in the world today. Protestant denominationalism is not any older than the 16 th century. A lot of people are not aware of that. That s where Protestant denominationalism came from. A protest against the darkness produced denominationalism. 3
But then let s go a step further and let s come to America in the 19 th century. This is when there was a kind of awakening that occurred that the world had not thought about up until this point. It is called a restoration movement. There were other efforts made earlier especially in England and there were efforts made here in the New World up and down the eastern seaboard. It s a little bit difficult to know just when this appeal for restoration began to take place because it is based simply upon the New Testament and wherever anybody believed and taught and obeyed the New Testament they just became Christians. And that could happen anywhere or any time without any knowledge of any Protestant denomination because the New Testament produces only Christians and only the church that Jesus promised to build. But we do know that efforts were made to reach back to Protestant denominationalism, back to the dark ages and, back to the first century, back to the origin occurred early in the history of this country. But most notably two things took place. The first was on June 28 of 1804. Over in central Kentucky near Lexington at a place called Cain Ridge. There was a man by the name of Barton W. Stone who along with some others drew up a document and signed their names to it. That was called the last will and testament of the Springfield Presbytery. Here s how that came about. They were a part of denominationalism but they saw that the religious community was divided into various sects. They knew that the New Testament emphasizes unity. They began to ask themselves, Why are we divided we believe in the same God we believe in the same Christ we have the same Bible? Why are we divided? And they reached the conclusion that they were divided because in addition to what they believed about God and Christ and in addition to the Bible they all had their human creeds. They believed that if we would give up our human creeds, if we would give up organizations that are unknown to the New Testament we would have an opportunity to be united. And so Barton W. Stone and others withdrew from the denomination that they were a part of and they established what was called the Springfield Presbytery. Almost immediately they were able to see that the very thing they opposed in Protestant denominationalism they were practicing by setting up this synod. And so they wrote the last will and testament of that which they started. They wanted to get rid of that. And here basically was their point, let us be united upon the basis of the New Testament only and let s restore in our day the church as it was when Jesus started it in the first century. Later September 7 of 1809, five years after Barton Stone began his work over in Western Pennsylvania there was a man by the name of Thomas Campbell. And he and others were troubled by the denominational divisions that were in what was called Christianity. They too knew that Jesus had prayed for unity. Thomas Campbell and some others with them drew up a document called The Declaration and Address. And at the end of that document they wrote this: Where the Scriptures speak we will speak and where the Scriptures are silent we will be silent. That was a revolutionary principle for that day. Where the Scriptures speak we want to speak where the Scriptures are silent we want to be silent. They were saying in matters of faith things about which God has clearly spoken, let us be together let us be united. But in matters of opinion let us have liberty. You have the right to your opinion and I have the right to my opinion, but we do not have the right to our opinions when God has spoken. And so when God speaks we are united and we re going to follow God not opinion. But in areas of opinion there will be liberty but in everything, they said, Let there be genuine love. 4
A few years later, as a matter of fact on January 1 of 1832, those two groups saw that they were making the plea for the same thing; for a return to primitive New Testament Christianity. To the New Testament as our only authority in matters religious and so they decided to join forces and did so. A man by the name of Tom Allen suggested that they call themselves by a biblical name. Some had wanted to call themselves reformers others to call themselves disciples and disciples is a good New Testament word but the church was never called that. Tom Allen said Romans 16:16, says, The churches of Christ salute you. Since Christ purchased the church with his blood and it belongs to him, why not just call ourselves the churches of Christ. And they decided to do that. That is called the American restoration movement. Members of churches of Christ are heirs of the restoration. Now we do not simply retrace our lineage back to the Stones and the Campbells. We are making a plea that they made. Because we believe the plea is correct and that is let s be Christians only and only members of the church you read about in the New Testament. Let s seek to restore the church in its name, in its practice, in its worship, in all things revealed by God. That grew like wildfire all across this young nation back in the 1800 s. It went throughout Kentucky and Pennsylvania down into Tennessee finally out into Texas and even on the Oregon Trail to reach the Pacific coast. It grew over in the Western Reserve which now is Ohio. Thousands of people embraced the principle, Let s be Christians only and members of only Jesus church. Let s speak where the Bible speaks and remain silent where the Bible is silent. The restoration appeal, in my judgment is the greatest thing being said in the world today. Because if we re going to be something religious why not be what the first disciples of Christ were, why not simply be what they were called, Christians? Somebody says we re all Christians aren t we? The real issue is did we become Christians the way they did. And did we become nothing but a Christian or do we become hyphenated Christians that we can hardly say what we are religiously without mentioning something else that you cannot read in the Bible. And have we sought to organize the church as it was organized in the New Testament. To ask people to become members the way people did in the New Testament. To worship after the prescribed order of the New Testament. In all questions religious have we asked, Not what do I think or what do I prefer but have we asked what does the Bible say? Now the third thing that I want to emphasize now is that today unity of believers is practical. We re not talking here about theory we are talking about something that is practical and I want to share with you why I believe that so. First of all if we will be united religiously we will have to have the right kind of attitude. Attitude is so important in our relationships with each other and also our relationship with God. I want to return to Ephesians chapter 4 for a moment and notice what Paul, where he laid down the plan for unity said. I beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling where with you were called. Then he focused upon our individual attitudes when he said, in all lowliness and meekness. You see if we re going to get together religiously we must get rid of human pride. We re not interested in doing my will or your will. We re interested in doing God s will. But we ll never reach that goal until we set aside our pride. We must have a proper attitude toward ourselves. But attitude must also be proper toward others for Paul said, in all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering bearing with each other with long-suffering forbearing one another in love. Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So I must have a proper attitude for myself and a 5
proper attitude toward you. But there s another element that involves attitude that must not be overlooked. It is not that we just are forbearing to the extent that what anybody believes is true. There must be in the third-place proper attitude toward the word of God. Notice that Paul says, Keep the unity of the Spirit the unity that the Spirit through his inspired words makes possible. You can t have the unity of believers without a proper respect for the word of God. Number one unity is practical if we can get our attitude right, number two we must recognize that there is a body of truth that God has revealed which can be read understood and obeyed. Jesus said in John 8:32, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. That body of truth is the word of God. John 17:17, says, Your word is true. Number three; unity can be practical in all of our relationships with each other if we will have a proper respect for the authority of Scriptures. 1 Peter 4:11 says, If anyone speak let him speak as the oracles of God. When one chooses to speak for God he better be in a position to say, Thus says the Lord rather than this is what somebody said. What does God say? It must be a proper respect for authority. Number four, to bring about unity with believers we must recognize and we must respect the patterns of Scripture. I know that s not a very popular thing to say in our day. As a matter of fact there are some among us who would say that there are no patterns in Scripture. Well, in 2 Timothy 1:13, Paul said to this young preacher, hold to the pattern of sound word. What s he going to hold to? In the Old Testament Moses built the tabernacle according to the exact pattern God gave him. Solomon built the Temple later exactly according to the pattern that God gave to his father David and David gave to Solomon. The tabernacle and the Temple are types or shadows or pictures of the church of the New Testament. Are you telling me that the type or the shadow the tabernacle and the Temple had specific patterns that God expected people to follow and the real substance to the church has none? We must recognize that there are patterns. Next, to bring about unity, believers we must understand that the Scriptures teach us by silence as loudly as they teach by pretense. When God says for us to do something we re obligated to do it. Our obligation goes beyond that to say, We re not going to do something else, something less, something different. And God doesn t have to name everything in the world and say to us, don t do that when he tells us specifically what to do. That s what I mean by the silence of Scripture. In Hebrews 7:14, the Bible says that Jesus, our high priest, could not be a priest on earth at all unless the law was changed. Why? Because the Hebrew writer says that Christ was from the tribe of Judah and God said nothing about priesthood pertaining to Judah. There were 12 tribes in Israel. God said the priestly tribe will be Levi. And did he have to go on and name the other 11 tribes and say don t get the priest from there? No. And that s the Hebrew writer s argument when he said, Levi that excluded the rest of the tribes. That s the principle of silence. Next we must recognize the autonomy of the local church, organized with elders and deacons when fully developed according to Philippians 1:1. Churches will have different personalities. We ought to be only committed to the revelation of God s word. But there will be a multitude of other things particularly in the area of opinion that each congregation decides under its leadership. And each church is autonomous; that is self-ruling under Christ. When all those matters that have to do with judgment and opinion brethren at other congregations don t have to agree with us, we have to recognize the autonomy of the church. 6
Next-to-last we must be on guard to stand against every danger from the outside and every departure from the inside. Because I m telling you that Christianity is under attack from the outside. And I want to also add that there are those who are in the fellowship of churches of Christ who have left us, not physically, but left us in their spiritual lives and what we believe. And it s those that present a greater threat to us than any danger from the outside. Because those who work on the inside change the church to something they think it ought to be. They are not upfront, they work behind the scene they work privately and seek to win people over to their point of view. We will oppose every danger from without and every departure from within, because we want to be simply biblical. And the last thing is; Luke 8:11, says, The seed is the word of God. There is a universal law of God that says seed produces after its kind. We all know that when the word of God and the word of God alone is planted in the heart of a person who will believe it and obey it, it, will produce today what it produced 2000 years ago. It will produce New Testament Christians. It will produce congregations that are self-ruling under their elders, subject to Christ. Just like it did when that seed was planted in the first century. And that s our appeal, that s our appeal to the religious community, that s our appeal to the world. It s an appeal that we must remember for ourselves. And that is that we are in the business of keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Be certain that your words, your actions work toward bringing us together rather than dividing and splitting us asunder. Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace as we seek to be New Testament Christians, members of Jesus church, and as we see that have the word of God blooming and blossoming in our lives. 7