Until We All Attain To The Unity of the Faith (2)

So a couple of weeks ago, the last time I preached, I preached from Ephesians, and I preached about unity, unity of the body. And I didn't get to finish. I did finish, but I didn't say everything I wanted to say about unity and that I think needs to be said about unity to us. And so I'm preaching again from Ephesians 4. Last time was verses 1 through 6. This time it's verses 11 through 16. But unity is something that's very, very important, and it's something that we don't understand. Last time I preached, the main point of the sermon was that we were to work to preserve unity and that that unity had to be founded on Jesus Christ, not on common interests, not on the things that we tend to have in common with other people, not because we get along with them and we have the same hobbies, we do the same work. No, a Christian's unity is founded.

upon the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, there are some common misconceptions about what unity looks like. On one side, you can think of unity as meaning uniformity, meaning that to be unified means to be the same. And that's not what unity necessarily means. We're going to get into how there is some truth in that, but that's not necessarily what it means. To be unified does not mean you have to be identical to the people around you. The other misconception about unity that Christians have is that their unity is only around the cross of Jesus Christ. That that is the only thing they have in common. That they can be completely different about everything else in their life. That there has to be no continuity between your life, my life, and their life, all as Christians. The only unity that we share is Jesus Christ. And that's not true either. Both of these misconceptions are harmful.

Looks like. So that we know what we're pursuing. And then we can pursue it. Would you please stand for the reading of God's word. From Ephesians chapter 4. Verses 11 through 16. And he gave some as apostles. And some as prophets. And some as evangelists. And some as pastors and teachers. For the equipping of the saints for the work of service. To the building up of the body of Christ. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith. And of the knowledge of the son of God. To a mature man. to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part,

causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Please pray with me. Father, we are a divisive, fractious people. We, by nature, think that we are the best, that we are the definition of what right is, and that everyone else would be blessed to learn from us and to be due as we do. Father, as we've opened your word, we pray that you would feed us from it. We pray that you would reveal our own wicked motivations to us and that you would bring us to the cross of Jesus Christ in repentance and faith. We pray also, Father, that you would increase our love for you and for our brethren, that you would cause our unity to be sweet, our fellowship to be deep. And we pray, Father, that you would add to our number daily those who are being saved. Father, we love you.

and we love one another, and we desire to have more people to love and to care for and to shepherd. We pray, Father, that you would bless us with this blessing, that you would bring into this church and into your kingdom many souls who are not here yet, who've come to the cross of your Son, Jesus Christ, and have confessed their sins and put their hope for this life and for the life to come in him. Help us, Father, to be faithful ambassadors of your word and your truth. and your son to this dying and wicked world. Help us not to participate in the wickedness that we're surrounded by, but rather to expose it and to replace it with hope that comes from knowing you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So our text this morning, you know, we're talking about unity, but our text this morning starts with diversity. It starts with a multitude, or not a multitude, a number of offices. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. These things are not the same. They're not different names for the same thing. They're actually different things. An apostle and a prophet and evangelist are different. An apostle is, when Paul says apostles, we ought to be thinking Peter, Paul, John, these men who've gone out and who've planted churches. This was the work of the apostles at the time of Christ. They were the foundation. They were the ones who the church would be built on. And so it was their work.

at the inception of the New Testament church to go out to spread the gospel and to plant churches and to preach the gospel. And as they preached, you realize that most of them, they didn't stay in one place. Paul was all over the place planting churches. So an apostle is one who would go around and who would plant churches at the beginning of the New Testament Christian church. What's a prophet? A prophet is a man who has the gift of prophecy, which means... the ability to predict future events. Now, some of us would say that's just common sense. But common sense isn't common to people, and common sense isn't prophecy. The prophet is someone who has the ability to read God's word, to see God in this time, to receive from the Lord his word, his will, something about the future, and then to proclaim it to the people and to say, this is what's going to happen.

And prophets were, there was severe penalties for prophesying falsely. The penalty was death. If they said, the Lord says, but the Lord didn't actually say it, the penalty was death. And so prophets were men who spoke God's word into this world to God's people, or they were men who interpreted prophecies. Daniel was a prophet. He interpreted prophecies, dreams. The king comes and says, I don't know what these dreams mean. And Daniel says, here's what they mean. Daniel was a prophet. In the New Testament, Agabus was a prophet. Evangelist. What is an evangelist? An evangelist was someone who was left behind at the time of the New Testament. It was a man who was left behind to help establish a church. Think of Timothy. Think of Titus. These men were evangelists. They traveled with the apostles, and the apostles would gather a church, gather people, and then the apostles would leave. And you have the pastoral epistles, Paul writing back to Timothy, writing back to Titus, saying, here's what you need to do.

You need to confirm the people. You need to appoint elders. You need to establish this church. You need to grow it up. And then we have, finally, pastors and teachers, which are both descriptions of work that is necessary for the ongoing administration of the church. We still have pastors and teachers today. Now, there's some differences between an apostle and a prophet and evangelists, pastors and teachers, but there's also a lot of similarities in their work. And so we have diversity and we have similarity. Now, these differences that existed were essential for the inception and the establishment and the growth of the church. And that's still true today. When we talk about unity, we realize that's what this text is about. And the text starts out saying that God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to start, to facilitate, to establish, and to grow.

the body of Christ, the church, into unit, to be unified, to grow up in unity. That's the work. That's one way of describing the work that all of these men do. And that work is still going on today. We still need pastors and teachers. We still need the word of God. We still need what the apostles say, what the prophets say, what the evangelists have said. We still need all of those things to facilitate unity. Unity is not something that we go get on our own now. It's not something we define by ourselves. We need to see from the very beginning of this text that unity is something that God provides in a particular way. For you to be unified with God means for you to be unified with God's people. And for you to be unified with God's people, you need to be taught. And you need to be taught by pastors and elders. That's what each one of us needs. And it's not just what you need, it's what I need. And I am a pastor. And it's what Daniel needs, and he's an elder. We need to be taught.

To be unified. It's not something we figure out on our own. It's not something you'll find and discover apart from the church, apart from being instructed in it. Now, unity is something that we all want, but unity is not something that we would all define the same way. You remember when, during the presidential election, remember me telling you about presidential slogans and why they're so great? What makes for a good... A good slogan, a good, you know, here's the catchphrase. What makes it good is that it's positive and it's vague. Because we like positive things, and if it's vague, we can all define what we mean by it. And so take, make America great again. What's that mean? Well, it means something, but it means something different to each of us. And what that phrase does is it unifies us.

We think. But it doesn't really unify us. And if you were to look at our political landscape now, you'd find that all of the people who voted for Donald Trump, they're not unified. They all have different ideas about what makes America great. And so they don't have unity. But this is how we conceive of unity. This is why that sort of thing is attractive to us. Because we say, yeah, yeah, I want unity. That sounds great. I don't want to be by myself. But we all conceive of what unity looks like differently. And if we're honest, what we think is that unity means everyone else sort of coalescing towards our opinion. And then we'll have unity. Then we'll have deep unity. And I say, no, that's not where you're going to find unity. The world will not find unity under a slogan like, make America great again. And we won't find unity if we think unity means us all kind of being like, Like me. Or you'll have unity because we won't really get down into the nitty gritties of life. We'll just go along to get along. You do your thing and I'll do my thing and we'll be unified. And we'll smile at each other and we'll be happy and we'll exchange pleasantries. No, this is not unity. You and I need to be taught how to be unified. And the reason we need to be taught how to be unified is because

We are different. And in this passage, you have unity and you also have the gifts that God's given to men. Toward the end of the passage in verse 16, it says that the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies. What are the joints? You're the joint. I'm the joint. But we're different joints. We do different things in the body. And there's unity when all of the parts of the body. Every joint provides what it's supposed to. According to the proper working of each individual part, that causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. That produces unity. And so unity doesn't mean you have to become like me exactly. It doesn't mean I have to become like you exactly. What it means is you have to become what God made you to be. And you have to be taught what God made you to be. You don't get to define what God made you to be. Another way of saying this is,

Individual diversity, doing and being what God made us to be and to do, that's what produces corporate unity. This worship service functions well when all of the different moving parts do their thing. When John plays the cello and David sings and Levi runs the sound and Zach runs the PowerPoint and I preach. And you listen and you stand and you kneel and you sing. And when we all do our different parts, then we have a unified service. If we were all in here talking over the top of each other and past each other and not listening to each other and some of us are standing and some of us are sitting and some of us are dancing and some of us are doing all this craziness, we would not be unified. And so unity comes when we are what God's made us to be and we do what we're supposed to do.

You remember the apostles got into an argument about who is the greatest? They're walking along with Jesus, and a dispute arose amongst them as to who is the greatest. And we do the same thing. And what is the cause? What is produced when you have that kind of argument? Who's the greatest? Who's right? What it produces is division. That's what comes. Well, I'm right and you're wrong. How many late nights have you been up arguing because of who was right? And who was wrong? You have to realize that the differences that God's written into each one of us, in his wisdom, carries with it a temptation to pride and to being divisive with our brothers. And say, you've got to be like me. You've got to see the world like I do. You have to prioritize the things I prioritize. And you're foolish if you don't. And as long as you know that I think you're foolish and you give some acknowledgement that you are foolish, then we can live together in unity because we all know you're an idiot. But that's not unity.

That's not unity. There was differences amongst the apostles. There were differences amongst the offices that the Lord established in his church. And there's differences between you and me and one another. And we have to learn how to function in those places towards unity. And the way we do that is by being instructed by the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers that God has given us. Because that's their work. If you go on in chapter 12, or verse 12, you see, that God gave all of these men for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. And so the goal of our work, the goal of my work, of Dan's work, of David's work, of the other elders' work, is to produce unity, is to train you in being unified, show you what it looks like, teach you what it means. Now, it's uncomfortable work. Changing always is uncomfortable.

It's not pleasant. And I don't know how else to say it to you, that it'll ruffle your feathers if you live in community with someone close enough to have them say, you know what? No, that doesn't honor God, that thing that you're doing. That's no good. It's a very difficult thing for us to hear. And yet we have to realize if we continue to pursue our... our own path, our own way, our own desires, we are breeding division. And you can think of this in terms of the church. You can think of this in terms of your workplace. You can think of this in terms of your marriage. You can think of this in terms of your children. You can think of this in terms of your friendships. If you aren't working towards unity with people, you are becoming an agent of division. Your place, wherever you find yourself, is to work.

towards unity, and you have to be taught how to do that. This work is an ongoing work. I would be unfaithful if I told you that this was short-term or easy or it was only going to take a little while. This is not the case. It's an ongoing work, and it's a work that began long before we were born and will continue on long after we die. What the Lord is doing is he's building a church. He's preparing a bride. for his son jesus christ and we all individually we in here and we christians throughout all of time are being put together and fit together to be to be to play our role and our part in the in the building up of the body of christ the preparing of the body of christ and you i want you to have a very clear expectation that this is not something that's we can work at it and there's a couple of little tweaks we need to make and then we're done

That's not that simple. It's not that easy. The work of growing in unity is a lifelong work. You and I, we must continually be changing. And not changing according to our own desires and our own plans and wanting to be a better person. But we're to be growing and we're to be changing more and more into the image of Jesus Christ. Every single one of us. The way I think of this is, I think of it in terms of climbing a mountain. And if you were to think at the pinnacle, at the apex of the mountain, here is Jesus Christ. And to be a Christian is to be climbing that mountain. And the thing about the mountain is God has placed us all at different places around the base of the mountain, and we all are climbing up towards Jesus Christ. Some of us walk a little closer to others on our way up because of how God's made us, and some of us are on the other side of the mountain from one another.

But to become unified, to be growing together and to be being fitted together as a body is for all of us from our place, the way God's made us to be walking up this mountain toward Jesus Christ. And what that necessarily means is that as we get closer to Jesus Christ, we will become closer to one another, right? And that means you're going to become more like the people. But really, as you become more like them, you're actually becoming more like Jesus Christ because that's what you're all being conformed to. That's what you're all working towards. And so there are things that as you were climbing a mountain and you got tired and you had burdens that you were carrying, what would you want to do with those burdens? Get rid of them. Guess what? That's what you have to do. There are things about you and about me that you have to get rid of. You have to jettison. You have to lighten your load so that you can carry the most essential things. You, as a man, are made in the image of God. And it's your place to grow into...

with Jesus Christ and to be more like him. And so there are things about you that you have to get rid of. I was talking to David yesterday. We were talking about my failures, which is always a fun conversation. And there's this, I was telling David, we've talked about this before, and I said, you know, if you were to describe me, And I won't make you go through the pain of saying what you think of me right now. But if you were to describe me, I've heard it said that I'm pushy, that I'm bossy. I've also heard that I've said that I'm discouraging, that I'm not really an encourager. And that I'm quick to make judgments and can kind of be hard to get along with sometimes. These are the sorts of things that people who know me...

Say about me. These are the bad things. I'm sure there are good things as well, but that's not what we were talking about. We were talking about the bad things. And so David related to me. He said, you know, when he moved up here, he said, you weren't exactly what I thought you were. What was it? You had a conception of who I was, and what was it? I'll do it to you. So this was David's impression of me. And so he said, well, once I came up and I got to know you, I actually think that that's not entirely true. I actually think that you're patient. I actually think you're too patient sometimes. And so for all of you who think that I'm not patient enough, just know that David thinks I'm too patient with you sometimes. And then he went on to say, well, the reason is because when we realize that we've got a failure, quick judgments that I'm given to, I've realized that that wasn't a wrong thing to observe about me. But when I realized it, I went, you know, that's got to go. That can't be. And so I've worked, and I'm not done working on it, but I've worked to become less judgmental, less quick in my judgments about people and about things. And so what have I had to do? I've had to change. Do you think it's been fun? Do you think it's easy? Do you think I like still having the reputation of being

when I'm trying not to be a jerk? If I've got to do it, then you've got to do it. That's where I'm at on the mountain. That's where I'm walking up. That's something I've tried to lay aside. It's just one thing. And you, each of you, have the same sort of stuff. And if you want to honor Jesus Christ, you have to be willing to lay aside the things that make for disunity in the body. If I walk around making judgments all the time and telling you this and telling you that and here's how you are and here's what you need to do and here's what's wrong, Are we unified? Are you going to go, thank you, and may I have another? No, this doesn't cause unity. It's not helpful all the time. And so you have to be willing. You have to be humble. If you're to seek unity, you have to be willing to change. And you have to be willing to have other people tell you. How did David get that opinion of me? He got that opinion of me because he came from a church where I used to be, and the people who knew me told him about the guy he was going to work with. David and I were not that close when we lived in Bloomington.

We didn't have a whole lot of a relationship. He was instructed. He was taught. Here's how you need to help Dave. He's kind of a jerk sometimes. And so as David was instructed towards unity and how to interact with me, so you need to be instructed. You need to be taught. Here's what you're like. Here's what needs to change about how you are. Because it's not helpful to your brothers. It doesn't glorify God for you to behave this way. One of the dangers we find in our text, in verse 14, Paul says, As a result, we're no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. I want you to see that these are the sorts of things you turn to when you're turning away from the work of repentance and faith and working towards unity. You become vulnerable to being deceived. You isolate yourself. If you were in Sunday school, I talked about

These three distinct groups of people. Pedestal people, the people you look up to. Pit people, you look down on them, nothing they do is right. And then there's you. And nobody's like you. No one understands you. No one gets you. No one knows what your life is like and how difficult it is. And what I said in Sunday school, and it bears repeating, is that sort of reasoning leads you to isolation. It leads you to be separated from the body. It leads to disunity. That's the fruit of it. That's what Satan's aim is. That's what he's aiming for when he's telling you, well, they're too good. You can't be like them. Well, they're too bad. You don't want to be like them. It breeds disunity. You are different. You have particular things in your life that I don't have, that other people don't have. We all do. And that's no reason not to be working towards unity with one another. There's no reason. But if you're unwilling to work towards unity and you're unwilling to have your rough edges,

sand it off, you become susceptible. You become like a little child who's naive, who's ignorant, who doesn't know who they are, that doesn't know where, you know, that stoves are hot and that cars drive in streets and these kinds of things. They're like children. And when you're unwilling to work towards unity, you become vulnerable like a child. And you're not to be like a child, tossed here and there by waves of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming, by being lied to, by having your ears tickled. The church is to grow from infancy, like children, to maturity, like adults. Children are unstable and easily deceived, and it's not in our best interest or in the interest of God and his glory for us to remain as children. In 1 Corinthians 13, 11, Paul says, when I was a child, I used to speak like a child. I used to think like a child, reason like a child. But when I became a man, I did away with childish things. One of the things that's important in my house with

with so many people there is to work towards unity. It's very easy to have a disunified house when you have a lot of people in it. And it's a lot of work to work towards unity. And so in my house, it's very common for me to talk to my children about the sacrifices that they need to make, the changes that they need to cheerfully submit to for the sake of the whole. This may not be what you want to do or what you think is best, but it is what has been most beneficial to our whole family. And the unity of our family is more important than you and you getting what you want or you being what you think you should be. You'll be better served to be unified with our family. And yet, does that mean that all my kids have to be exactly the same? They all have to be athletes or they all have to be musicians or they all have to be readers or they all have to be, what is it? What do they have to be? They have to be who God made them to be. And some of my kids are more athletic and some of them are more artsy and some of them are quieter and some of them are louder.

And that's who God made them to be. And you know what? Unity doesn't require them to become something that God didn't make them to be. It requires them to become what God made them to be. We must move from being like children, naive, susceptible, vulnerable, to maturity, to unity. As Paul puts it in Ephesians, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ. We are to become a mature man. In Hebrews 5, The author of Hebrews writes, he says, everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness for he is an infant. And so it's kind of crazy to think of giving a little baby solid food. They can't handle it. Their systems can't handle it. They don't know how to chew. They don't have teeth. It just doesn't make any sense to give a little baby solid food. They're infants. He said, but solid food is for the mature who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. You and I have to grow.

Towards unity, towards the fullness of Christ. And we have to set aside our childish stuff. And when I see little kids fight, it's kind of, sometimes it's funny and it shouldn't be funny when you see some of the stuff kids fight about. But it's also kind of pathetic when you see little kids fighting over a toy and you hear from the other room, mine, no, it's mine, no, it's mine. And my thought is, that's... that's pathetic. I don't want you to be adults doing that. Now, if it's pathetic when you hear kids doing that, how much more pathetic is it and dishonoring to God is it when we see adults doing that? Fighting and arguing, bickering and complaining about not having what they want, not getting their way, being told they have to change, that they have to grow, that what they just did isn't okay. It's unbecoming on a child. It's far more unbecoming on an adult. The reason I'm saying all of this is that

if we're to be unified as a body, people are going to come to you and say, that's not okay. This is no good. And are we going to prepare our hearts to receive that? Or are we going to be like a little child and say, well, that's not fair because he did this and he did that and the other thing, like a child does. If you have children, do you ever have them come to you and say, my leg hurts? They get up out of bed at night and they say, my leg hurts. And they don't have a bruise and they didn't fall. When they're young or when you have your first child or two, it's a very strange thing that's going on. What is it? They're called growing pains. Their bones are growing, and it hurts. I don't remember. Some of you probably remember when you were a child. You remember aching and hurting. I don't have any memory of that myself, but I'm looking at you, and a number of you are saying, I remember. I remember that. And I'm telling you, that's what growing is like. That's what growing in unity, growing in maturity is like. There are growing pains.

But your bones have to grow. And spiritually, the same is true. You have to grow. You have to be conformed to the image of God. You have to attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. So what causes those growing pains? Well, what causes those growing pains is having this truth spoken to us. It's painful often to have people come to us and say, this isn't all right. Your children are out of line. Your marriage is not well. You're lazy at work. Your house is out of order. What is it? There's all kinds of things that get said, and it's hard to hear. It's hard to have someone close enough to us who's willing to come and speak to us and say, this can't be. Paul tells us we're to speak the truth in love. Speaking the truth in love in verse 15, we're to grow up into all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ. The easy assumption to make here is that if we...

It's hard enough to hear truth, but you think that if someone says it lovingly, that it won't hurt or won't sting. And that's not true. It's not true. There are times that I've had things said to me or I've said things to other people, and it has been loving. And it's still been painful. It's been very painful. And the failure wasn't that they didn't say it right. And this is often one of the first retreats we go to is, well, you didn't say, you know, I'm not opposed to what you're saying. I just didn't appreciate the way you said it. If you had said it like this and flattered me and complimented me and really not rebuked me but told me I was wonderful, then I wouldn't be upset. And I want you to get clear in your minds that speaking the truth in love stings, and yet it's loving. You can't separate speaking the truth from love.

Paul says again in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 1, he says, If I speak with the tongues of men and angels but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. I'm useless. I'm useless. I'm of no benefit to anyone. And so you can't separate truth and love. It's hard to think about living in unity with people. There are some of us that get along great, and there are some of us that rub each other the wrong way. And what are we going to do? As the church grows, is this just going to become a church where we have cliques and we have people who like this kind of music and this kind of food and we have people who like this kind of education and this kind of standard of living or these kind of cars? Or are we going to work to be unified? Are we going to work to be able to give and receive instruction and rebuke? Part of the reason this is important to me, maybe I should tell you, part of the reason this is important to me is because I...

the way I grew up, I grew up without unity. I grew up without relationships and without intimacy or closeness. And so there were some good things about, well, there wasn't anything good about that, but one of the good things that ended up happening is I'm fairly competent and can get things done. I don't much like to collaborate with people. I don't like to work with people. I like to just get things done. And as I've been married, And as I've had children, I've realized the danger of my own willingness to live and exist without being unified, particularly with Vanessa, as my kids get older. We would get along, and we would be working together, but unity was never a priority to me. I was just ignorant of it. I didn't know we had to talk about it. I just thought we just had to do it.

It's been a painful lesson for me to learn the ways that I just don't place any value on being unified with someone. I've lived my life saying unity looks like the ship's leaving the dock and I'm driving it and if you want to get on, great, come on. I'll wait a minute or two for you. But if not, then too bad. We're out of here. And I've realized how awful that is. And I'm not willing for... that to continue to be the case in my own home, and I'm also not willing for that to be the case in the church, where we all just live with each other and we all just tolerate each other, but we don't love each other and we're not helpful to each other because we're not unified, because it's not what we're pursuing. And so it's very important to me that we learn to love each other and we learn to care for each other and we learn to hear when other people are correcting us. When they don't say it the way we say it and they don't...

whether that's not as directly or that's not as loudly or that whatever it is, that we learn to hear it. And that we learn to see that if they know us and they love us enough to say something to us, then the most awful thing we can do is get angry at them when they speak to us and when they correct us. For us to not care that they have our best interest in heart. And you say, what do you mean our best interest? They were really a jerk when they said it. And they didn't even ask me what I thought. And I say, if it has to be perfect, then you'll never have unity with people. Unity is a very difficult thing to maintain. It's very difficult to pursue, and it's not anything that you're going to learn in the culture. Husbands and wives make great roommates these days.

They're real good logistical managers, administrators. You're doing this, and I'm doing this, and here's my schedule, and here's your schedule, and here's how it all fits together. And then we add the kids, and it's all color-coded, and it all works in the end. But there's no unity. You can have a big church. You can have lots of people, lots of money, and a big, nice building, and all kinds of stuff, and not be unified, not be able to figure out what kind of music you're going to have in worship. You guys know how bad that is to have separate worship services with different music? It's awful.

We have a contemporary service and we have a traditional service. No, what you have is disunity. And you're unwilling to face the problem. We'll just have two services. That's not fixing the problem. Now, do we have two services? No. Are we considering having a contemporary service and a traditional service because some of you guys like piano more than others? No. But it's just an example of how we, I mean, have you ever thought when you see a church that has all these different services, have you thought, I don't think they're unified. I don't think that's a good thing, yeah? How is paedo-credo different in terms of unity? Well, thank you for asking. So how is it that we have unity if we disagree on paedo-baptism and credo-baptism? Well, what we disagree about is the time and mode of baptism. And there's a lot that we agree about. And so what do we agree about about baptism?

Well, we agree that baptism doesn't save you. That if you get baptized, you're actually saved. Whether you baptize babies or whether you don't, our church is unified in saying that does not save you. We also agree that it is not voluntary. Get baptized if you want to. You don't want to? That's fine. You don't have to do what you want, when you want, how you want, when you feel like it. No, we agree that if you weren't baptized as a baby, It's one of the first steps you take in obedience to demonstrate your faith. We're agreed about that. We're agreed that being a sacrament, it's a means of grace. It's a way that God, it's a right, R-I-T-E. It's a right that God uses to communicate grace to us, that it isn't just something that we do and then it's done. We think that it actually has spiritual significance. Now, what do we, that's what we, those are, Some of the things we agree about. If I thought longer, I could think of more, I'm sure. What do we disagree about? We agree about who should get it. And do we say it doesn't matter? I don't. And I'm cradle Baptist, and my kids aren't baptized. And it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that those of you who baptize your babies, I think you're wrong. And I don't think you should do it. And it doesn't come as a surprise to me that you would say the same thing about me. So how can we have unity?

when we acknowledge that we disagree about this. What we've decided is that, what we've seen fit to say is that the level of disagreement that we have doesn't rise to the level of us not being able to worship together. Now, when you have this argument about baptism, you have a lot of straw men arguments or caricatures of, Another person's position. So a Baptist caricature of a Presbyterian would be to say, you believe that once your kids are baptized, they're saved. You believe that the act does it. Now, are there some Presbyterians or people who baptize babies who do believe that? Yes, absolutely. Do we affirm that belief? Absolutely not. And our Presbyterians who baptize babies would reject that.

What does the Presbyterian, what is their caricature of a Baptist? They say, well, you don't trust God and you don't believe the Bible and you think that God's word is, that his promises don't apply to your children, that it's all happenstance and that your kids have, that God doesn't work through families, that your kids somehow have to go away from you. like the prodigal son, that that's your expectation, is that your children are going to grow up to be hellions, to go away, to slop pigs, and then you hope that at some point later in life, they come back and come to know Jesus. And is that, are there some Baptists that would live like that? Yeah, there are, sadly. Is that what I, was that my disposition towards my children? Absolutely not. I expect my kids to love and to serve Jesus Christ.

I absolutely do. And so we've decided that the level of disagreement concerning baptism, which is time, time meaning when we baptize, and mode meaning do you immerse them or is pouring or sprinkling acceptable, we've decided not to divide as a church over it. But that doesn't mean that we don't care about it. And it doesn't mean that I think it's okay to do whatever you want as long as you feel like it's right in your heart. No, I think that either Paedo-Baptists are right and Credo-Baptists are wrong, or Credo-Baptists are right and Paedo-Baptists are wrong. I don't think that both of us are right, and I think that the Lord will make it clear to us when we meet him what is right. And in the time being, between now and then, we have to act by faith, and we have to follow our consciences.

And there's a reasonable case to be made for both positions from Scripture. You could argue and say, we should baptize babies because this and this and this and this Scripture. And I can turn around and say, no, baptism, here's who should be able to be baptized because of these Scriptures here. And so neither one of us is making stuff up. But we have a different view of how these things fit together in our own understanding. And we've decided that, It's not sufficiently clear in Scripture to disallow or separate from those who differ in that opinion. And that really is, it's a way, this sort of thing happens all through life. There are different things that we do. Your family, Luke's going to do things differently than my family is. My son Joseph just asked me yesterday, we were going to the hardware store, and he said, Daddy, how do you make...

how do you make decisions where the answer is not in the Bible? It's basically his question. How do you decide what to do when Scripture doesn't tell you, Mr. Smith should take this job? What are you supposed to do? And I said, well, you apply biblical wisdom and your understanding of Scripture as a whole to the question. And so then we went through a bunch of different circumstances. And I said, okay, should Mr. Smith take a job at Taco Bell? And Joseph said, No, because if he worked at Taco Bell, he wouldn't be able to take care of his family. And I said, oh, so you understand that it's Mr. Smith's job to take care of his family, right? He said, yes. And I said, okay, so you think that Taco Bell is not going to pay enough for him to take care of his family. He said, that's right. And I said, okay, so you're applying wisdom. I said, now, what about if Mr. Smith is offered a job that does pay enough, but the thing about the job is it's night shift?

And he has to, you know, Sunday night through Thursday night, he's gone every single night. Should he take that job? Well, and it does pay enough to support his family. Well, some of us would say yes, and some of us would say no. Most of us would probably be able to say, we want to know more about Mr. Smith's life before we decide. What about if Mr. Smith gets a good job, but he has to travel a lot? What if every other week he has to be gone all week, out of state? Should he take that job? And I went back and forth with Joseph, just asking him these questions. And we were getting to the point where I said, well, Joseph, I disagree with you. I think Mr. Smith could take that job. He says, well, I don't think Mr. Smith should take that job. And I said, well, I think it's okay for him to. And we all make these sorts of decisions. And those sorts of differences, those are the things that lead us to drift apart from people.

I don't think Mr. Smith, you know, you're Mr. Smith. I don't think you should take that job. You're Mr. Smith and you think you should take that job. Okay, well, since we disagree, we can't be friends anymore. No, it's not that. You know, the sorts of things we get accused of, it's so funny. Some of you young people think you have to have our permission to date. You have to come and check in like a little kid. Can I have a cookie? Yes, you may have a cookie, son. But then you're 20 or you're 25 and you go, can I have a girlfriend, Dad? The question is inappropriate. Are there times where we would say, no, you may not? Yes, there are circumstances where that would happen. Do you have to check in to get permission to have a girlfriend? No, you should be wise about it. Can I marry them? I don't have to marry them and that's not my decision. Do you think I should marry them? Do you think you should?

But the thing is, there's this temptation. You want everyone to be all the same. And you tell everyone they've got to do everything. And they all have to check in. We all have to be identical the same. And then when life actually happens and they come and they ask, I say, why are you asking me? I'm sure I'm glad to talk to you about it and ask you questions and help you figure out what's going on in your life. And maybe I have a suggestion for you. But it's not this heavy-handed, you may and you may not. And if you don't, then we're not unified.

I'm sure a number of you, if you were to think of someone else in the church and you go, I don't think they should do that. I don't think they should have done that. I don't think they should be doing that. I don't think they should have bought that. I don't, whatever. Can we, what we need to do is grow into maturity and be able to realize that God has made each of us, that we all have our own consciences, that not everything that we decide to do or not do is inherently sinful. Some things are. And part of growing in unity is learning. where that line is do you have to check in to say can i can i go can i date can i have a girlfriend no but is the are you living with and sleeping with and are they an unbeliever can you date them no you can't but is that my opinion that's not my opinion that's what god's word says and to be mature is for us to say what god's word says and where god's word's not

we allow room for people to have consciences and to live their life by faith before God, knowing that they're going to give an account for it. And that's what maturity requires of us. And that's what will facilitate unity, is us growing to see that different people are going to make different choices with their lives. Some people are going to do this with their kids, and some people aren't going to do this with their kids. And some people are going to have education this way, and some people aren't. Some people are going to do all kinds of different stuff. And maturity is willing to look at it and say, is that sinful, what they're doing? If it's sinful, then we're going to treat it like it's sinful. But if it's not sinful, we're not going to treat it like it's sinful. We might treat it like it's unwise. It might be foolish. But maturity has that sort of perspective. And if we're to have unity, that's what we have to cultivate. You have to learn how hard you can push people to change and where you should push people to change. You know, money fights are always marriage fights.

And so when people come with money problems, you know what they have? They have marriage problems. And you don't want to make the marriage problem a money problem because the money is the symptom. And so if you come to me and you go, Pastor, we're all messed up. Our finances are all screwed up. We're broke. We don't have any food and our lights are about to be turned off. You have a marriage problem, most likely. And I'm not going to make, the issue is not primarily your finances. Do your finances need to be addressed? Oh yeah, because you don't have any food and your lights are about to be turned off.

But how did you get to that position? Because if we don't address how you got to that position, you're going to get to that position again. And so we have to have perspective about what causes unity and what things we can say. We all have to live by faith before God and make our decisions, and we'll all be accountable for them. I don't have to live your life. I don't have to pay your bills. I don't have to be married to the person you're dating. I don't have to raise your kids. But as you do all of those things, I, as your pastor, want to see you do it in a way that honors God. And so I'm going to point you and direct you towards his word and towards biblical wisdom in everything that you're doing, as I hope you would to me. And some of the time, that's going to mean you have to change and maybe change some things that are really painful or really dear to you. But as a Christian, your primary goal is to serve Jesus Christ and to live.

your life in accordance to his word. And that necessarily means you have to change. And I'm not sorry for telling you, you have to change. And I'm not sorry when you tell me, Pastor, this has got to change. And so I want us to grow in our willingness to submit ourselves to the word of God and to move things around as we need to and to not fight and quarrel with one another when that work needs to be done and someone comes and points it out. If you've got more questions about this, you can talk to me afterwards. I'm way over time, so I need to be done. Let's pray. Father, we have many questions and many difficulties. We're weak and fumbling, and yet we have your spirit, and we're not as bad off as we could be, but that's only true because of your mercy toward us. We pray that you would give us your Holy Spirit, that you would teach us.

to obey all that you've commanded us to, that you give us submissive hearts to your word. And I pray, Father, that you would humble us and make us teachable and help us not to become angry or embittered towards our brothers when they speak to us, but help us to strive towards the unity of the faith and the building up of your body, your body, the church. And we pray, Father, that you'd make each of us faithful and that you'd show us what our place is and help us to grow into maturity in that place. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.